Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez Professor of Hispanic Studies

I specialize in medieval and early modern visual and textual cultures with an emphasis on 15th century Iberia. My research interests include literary and artistic representations of love and death, courtly love literature, narratives of grief, history of emotions, and practices of reading and writing.  I am particularly interested in Celestina by Fernando de Rojas (1499).  Beyond Medieval Studies, my research interests also extend to Pilgrimage Studies, Southern Studies (Spain), Material Culture, and Linguistics.

I have published on the literary reception of Don Quixote in 18th century England, early modern desire, medieval narratives of mourning, early modern models of readership, the connections among History, Literature, and Medicine in Late Medieval Iberia, and the intersections between material culture and personal transformation on the contemporary Camino de Santiago. I have also co-edited a collection of essays, The Camino de Santiago in the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Global Views (Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group). I have presented conference papers in Europe and the U.S. on reading practices in Cervantes' time, epistolary writing, exile, courtly love, spectatorship theory, narratives of mourning, material culture of pilgrimage, literary aesthetics, and witches. My research currently focuses on the intersections among visual studies, medical discourses, and medieval representations of death.

I particularly enjoy working with students as they pursue their individual areas of interest. I have directed a variety of independent studies on Medieval Studies, Southern Studies, and Linguistics. Recent topics include medieval suffering, medieval literary theory, the cults of death in Medieval Iberia, and the Middle Ages in modern visual arts. I have also worked with students on the evolution of Spanish from the Ibero-Roman period to the Middle Ages, and sociolinguistics of Chilean, Cuban, and Mexican Spanish in the United States. In addition, I have served as the director of numerous senior theses and senior honors theses on topics including Muslims in Al-Andalus, humanistic responses to death, medieval lovers, non-verbal communication in Early modernity, medieval memory and violence, lovesickness in medieval poetry, heroes and saints in the Middle Ages, the Camino de Santiago, urban spaces in Early modern Iberia, and Science fiction constructed languages.

I enjoy engaging with students both inside and outside of class. On campus I have served as the academic adviser of the Organization of Latinx American Students (OLAS), faculty adviser of the Spanish Language and Culture Living Community in Duke Residence Hall, and as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK). I have been named the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Assistant Professor (2009-11).  I have been also honored to receive the Student Government Association Pre-Major Faculty Advising Award (2013), the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award (2014), the Student Government Association Faculty Award (2019), and the Boswell Family Faculty Fellowship (2022-23).

Teaching

My research interests inform my teaching as well. Since coming to Davidson in 2004, I have taught a variety of courses on Spanish language, culture, and literature.

SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish

SPA 260 Conversation and Composition

SPA 270 Textual Analysis

SPA 302 Advanced Grammar

SPA 303 Advanced Grammar and Composition

SPA 304 Sociolinguistics of Spanish

SPA 320 Spanish Literature Through the Golden Age

SPA 324 Emotional Communities in Medieval Iberia

SPA 354 Dying of Love in Medieval Spain

SPA 357 Spain's Cultural Identity: The Country Behind the Myths

SPA 360 Cultures of Southern Spain

SPA 361 Cultures and Civilizations of Spain

SPA 402 Transformation and Travel in Spain

SPA 490 Geographies of Emotion in Medieval Iberia