ASIMA F. X. SAAD MAURA

Assistant Professor of Spanish

Hall Building 1A
Haverford College
Haverford, PA 19041

610-795-1801 Off.

610-896-1495 FAX

asaadmau@haverford.edu

• Academic Background
• Research
• Teaching Experience
• Conferences
• Publications
• Courses
• Memberships

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

RESEARCH & PERSONAL INTERESTS

Throughout the years, I have been able to develop a portfolio of teaching strategies applicable to a variety of educational settings at the core of which lies my own vital experience as an immigrant Puerto Rican woman.  Having studied all my life in Puerto Rico's rigorous academic setting enabled me to acquire the numerous materials that I use as supplementary handouts.  Furthermore, moving to the United States and being immersed in the English language has helped me to acquire better teaching tools and stronger academic perspectives.

Born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico (Lebanese father and Puerto Rican mother), I have always been interested in the meeting of different cultures and the transatlantic voyages that these entail.  From my studies in Puerto Rico through my doctoral degree and academic formation at the University of Pennsylvania I have had the opportunity to expand upon both my scholarly and personal interests.  I have taught a variety of courses, at graduate and undergraduate levels, dealing with different scholarly areas: literatures and cultures of Spain's Golden Age and Colonial Latin America, from the 16^th and 17^th centuries through the 19^th, as well as literatures of the Spanish Caribbean (mainly Puerto Rico and Cuba) and Latin America in general.  In teaching Latin American colonial literature and its Siglo de Oro counterpart, I stress the connections between the Old World and the New World through the chronicles and the cultural production from both sides of the Atlantic.  By the same token, I take this background to my courses on 19^th-, 20^th- and 21^st-century literatures. The additional materials that I use in my courses -music, visual arts, film, short stories, and novels- lend themselves to illustrate the expanding contexts of the colonial/transatlantic phenomenon past and present.   

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Temple University, Assistant Professor, 2002-2005; Haverford College, Part-time Visiting Assistant Professor, 2002-2005; Swarthmore College, Full-time Visiting Assistant Professor, 2001-2002; Drexel University, Part-time Adjunct professor, 1998-1999; University of Pennsylvania, Teaching Assistant, 1995-1998; Ursinus College, Chair, Spanish section in the Summer Intensive Foreign Language Program for pre-college students, 1998-2001.

PAPERS PRESENTED/FORTHCOMING AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS

2006
‘Dancing and Singing Your Way Through Grammar’; Technology-mediated Language Learning Beyond the Classroom, Northeast Association for Language Learning Technology (NEALLT), University of Pennsylvania, April 7-9.

‘Gender and genre transgression in a Spanish American Pastoral Novel’; South-Central Renaissance Conference, Exploring the Renaissainse: An International Conference; Houston, Texas, March 9-11.

2005
‘Hibridismo político-histórico en el cuento 'Tres indios junto al río' de René Marqués’; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, October 6. (Invited)

‘Eurocentrismo y blanqueamiento en la poética del Siglo de Oro’; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Bayamón, October 13. (Invited)

Round-table discussant, Hybridity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain; Princeton University, May 13. (Invited)

‘Intertextualidad y mensaje político-religioso en el cautivo de Cervantes y el Alonso Ramírez de Sigüenza y Góngora’; Congreso Internacional Cervantino ‘Cervantes, Quijote y Sancho; Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú, April 20-22. (Invited)

‘Cautiverio, burla y crueldad en Don Quijote de La Mancha e Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez’ (Presenter and Panel Chair): Transnationalism: Intersections of the Global and the Local, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, April 7-9.

Panel organizer for Don Quixote at 400: A Celebratory Encounter; Villanova University, March 17-19.2005.  Special session: ‘Cultural Hybridities, Imperial Ideologies’; Friday, March 18.  Panelists: Marina S. Brownlee (Princeton University), Israel Burshatin (Haverford College), and Lucas Marchante (William & Mary).

2004

‘Entre la realidad y la ficción: crónica y cuento en dos tiempos y un espacio’; Visiones Literarias del Viejo y Nuevo Mundo, University of Massachusetts Amherst, April 23-24.

‘From the Traditional Utopian Fountain to the Exotic Lagoon: New Spain as an Urban Arcadia in Colonial Letters’; Renaissance Society of America, New York, NY, April 1-3.

2003

‘El yo ambiguo y político en la poética del renacimiento imperial español’; Sixth Biennial Conference of the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, Boston University, October 9-11.

‘Juan de Grijalva: ¿explorador benévolo o conquistador fracasado?’; 36^th Annual Comparative Literature Symposium. (In)Versions of the New World: Writing Race, Religion & Sex in Colonial Latin America; Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX; March 13-16.

‘Juan de Grijalva y las múltiples —y contradictorias— versiones de su expedición a Yucatán’; SECOLAS at 50: Imagining the Past, Remembering the Future; Fiftieth National Meeting in Chapel Hill and Durham, North Carolina, Hosted by the Consortium in Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University; March 6-8.

2002

‘The Notion of Geography in the Poetics of Spain's Siglo de Oro’; Lecture Series; Swarthmore College, January 30^th. (Invited)

2001
‘El cine como recurso de enseñanza.’ Guest participant in the Round Table discussion for Luis Molina Casanova's filmic work as part of the week in celebration of Puerto Rican Culture and Identity; Universidad del Turabo, Humacao, Puerto Rico, November  15, 2001. (Invited)

‘Poetas del Caribe.’ Poetry reading in the inauguration of artist Consuelo Gotay’s exhibit Poetas del Caribe where I read selections from four art books while she showed her own fine artwork; Universidad del Turabo, Humacao, Puerto Rico, November 16, 2001. Consuelo Gotay is one of Puerto Rico's leading artists in printing techniques and art books. Her works are limited editions and are exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. (Invited)

Master Class to undergraduate pedagogy students: ‘Strategies in the teaching of grammar to non-native Spanish speakers’; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Humacao branch, November 16, 2001. (Invited)

1999
‘Bernardo de Balbuena y la poetización de la geografía americana a principios del siglo XVII’; Primer Congreso de Literaturas y Culturas Hispánicas: Mileranismo y fin de siglo, Bucknell University, April 12^th.

1998

‘Lentes correctivos en la obra de Bernardo de Balbuena’; Graduate Colloquium: Spanish Literature of the Golden Age: Fin de Siècle and the New World; Brown University, May 8-9.

‘Pasado perfecto: Bernardo de Balbuena y el sujeto heroico,’ 18^th Annual Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Cincinnati, April.

1997

‘La Grandeza mexicana de Bernardo de Balbuena: creando un nuevo centro’; Third Annual Graduate Romanic Association Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, March.

WORKS PUBLISHED

Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry [Five Volumes]. Entry on Bernardo de Balbuena. Greenwood Press, December 2005. See details at Amazon.com

Footnotes to a new edition of  La charca (1894) written by Manuel Zeno Gandía, the main representative of the Naturalism movement in Puerto Rico. StockCero Publishers, December 2005.

‘El Cautivo de Cervantes e Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez: Intertextualidad y mensaje político-religioso.’  Ínsula Barataria: Revista de Literatura y Cultura (Lima, Perú) 3 No. 4 (2005): 9-17. 

‘Algunas ideas en torno a El Quijote.’  La Casa de Cartón: Revista de Cultura (Lima, Perú) 27 (2005): 2-3. 

‘Juan de Grijalva: ¿explorador benévolo o conquistador fracasado?’”SECOLAS Annals, Journal of the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies XXXV (2003): 119-25 (Abstract)

Book review on three books about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; Hispanic Review, University of Pennsylvania; Winter (2002): 112-16.

FORTHCOMING:

January 2007: Critical Edition of Lazarillo de Tormes [1554] (StockCero Publishers, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

September 2007: Critical Edition of Infortunios de Alonso Ramírez [1690], by Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (StockCero Publishers, Buenos Aires, Argentina)

December 2008: Critical Edition of Grandeza mexicana [1604], by Bernardo de Balbuena (Ediciones Cátedra, Madrid, Spain)

INTERACTIVE WEBSITES:

Summer 2006: La Mujer, Interactive Grammar Website

COURSES

490 Senior Departmental Studies. A seminar to prepare students for the research and writing of their Senior Theses by means of close readings of works from various periods and genres and through selected works of criticism or theory. (Fall 2006)

205 Studies in Spanish American Novel. Introduction to selected short 20th-century Spanish-American short stories and novels by García Márquez, Bombal, Cortázar, Ferré, García Ramis, Vega, etc. (Spring 2007)

230 Medieval and Golden Age Spain: Literature, Culture, and Society. Introduction to the culture and literature of medieval and early modern Spain: Castilian expansion, religious diversity, and cultural transformations, from the Reconquest to the Hapsburgs. Prerequisite: Spanish 102 or consent of the instructor. (Fall 2005)

313 Literature of the Caribbean. A selection of essays, novels and plays, including Carpentier, Julia de Burgos, Luis Rafael Sánchez and many others. Prerequisite: A 200 level course or consent of instructor. (Spring 2006)

320 Spanish American Colonial Writings. A Seminar for Majors based on the turmoil brought across the Atlantic by the first explorers and conquistadores.  Students read a good sample of the representative writings from the textual legacy left by the Spanish discovery, conquest, and colonization of the New World.  Emphasis was placed on the transformation of historical and literary genres, and the role of Colonial literature in the formation of Latin American identity.  (Fall 2003)

559 Cervantes. A close reading of the "first modern novel," Don Quijote de la Mancha (Parts I and II), and the Novelas ejemplares served as representative aides in understanding the impact of the salient happenings of the time: the Catholic Inquisition; Imperial and Religious Wars; the influence of Erasmus; the Reformation and the Counter Reformation; transatlantic travels; the conquest and colonization of the New World. (Spring 2005, Temple University)

387 Hispanic Influences in the USA.  Students got acquainted with writings dealing with the immigration experience since the first Spanish explorers from the 15th century, to the Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st. (Spring 2004, Temple University).

239 Puerto Rican Culture & Civilization.  A course based on Puerto Rico's history from its discovery to our days (Spring 2004, Temple University).219 Puerto Rican Readings from 15th-19th Century, depicting the newly discovered Island (1493), from the Chronicles of Indies and later literary works where a Puerto Rican identity is shown to start taking an independent form  (Fall 2003, Temple University).

364-764 Survey of Spanish Golden Age Literature. A course designed to familiarize students with the times of glory and turmoil of the two centuries that mark the period of colonization and empire. The concept of Empire, in light of historical documents and the canonic works of 16th and 17th-century Spanish writers, was discussed through postmodern theory  (Spring 2003, Temple University).

010 En busca de América Latina, a course designed to familiarize students with cultural, political and social issues in Latin America through history, literature, music and film  (Spring 2002, Swarthmore College).

086 El Nuevo Mundo, a course on Colonial Spanish-American literature, based on post-colonial theory, including 20th-century short stories, novels and films dealing with the topic of the first transatlantic encounters (Fall 2001, Swarthmore College).

499 The Spanish Conquest of the New World, a senior seminar on Colonial Spanish-American Literature, with primary focus on the Chronicles of Indies (Fall 1999, Drexel University).

371 Spanish-Spanish American Cultures and Literatures. Advanced course dedicated to the discussion of cultural and political issues of various Spanish-speaking countries, from Spain to South and Central America, and the Caribbean (Spring 1998, Drexel University).

Besides the courses listed above, language/grammar/composition courses in the Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced levels in every institution where I have taught.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

History of Cartography Project, University of Wisconsin; Latin American Studies Association (LASA); Mexican Art Teaching Poster Advisory Group, Division of Education, Philadelphia Museum of Art; Modern Language Association (MLA); Renaissance Society of America (RSA); South Eastern Council on Colonial Latin American Studies (SECOLAS); Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry (SRBHP); StockCero Avisory Board.

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Last updated 3 August 2006