Ana Álvarez Guillén
Ana Álvarez Guillén
Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
129 Major Williams Hall 220 Stanger Street Blacksburg, VA 24061
anaalvarez@vt.edu
Ana Álvarez Guillén (she/ella) received a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Kentucky in 2023 and is currently an Instructor of Spanish in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech. She is a Peninsularist specializing in 20th- and 21st-century Catalan literature, more specifically in its short story tradition and the work of writers such as Mercè Rodoreda, Montserrat Roig, Concha Alós, and Carme Riera. Her research interests include gender studies, feminist New Materialisms, and ethics of care.
Dissertation Title and Summary
“Thinking across bodies”: percepción woolfiana y giro material en la cuentística de Rodoreda, Roig, Alós y Riera
Conventional understandings of perception have long undergirded traditional readings of Modernist texts in adopting a predominantly subject-centered perspective that separates subject from object in a vertical and hierarchical relationship. I argue that a consideration of Virginia Woolf’s short stories in dialogue with four generations of twentieth-century Catalan women writers who followed her work closely suggests an entirely different epistemological framework of perception in which subject and object are fluidly and horizontally organized. Mercè Rodoreda, Concha Alós, Montserrat Roig and Carme Riera establish a horizontal fictional dialogue that constitutes a return to matter that decenters the subject, resulting in an alternative understanding of quotidian reality in which objects acquire an agency proper to subjects and active trans-corporeal interchanges and interactions are continuous. I draw an evolutionary thought line between these stories and current feminist new materialisms that propose precisely the dissolution of constructed binomial limits between perceiving and perceived, human and non-human, and nature and materiality as a liberating new way of conceiving our world because it redefines social power along a horizontal axis. I thus locate Woolf and her Catalan counterparts on an epistemological continuum—and an intergenerational theoretical genealogy—with theorists such as Donna Haraway, Stacy Alaimo, and Sara Ahmed, whose collective new materialist thinking ideates a salutary shift toward care economies and democratized social dynamics.
- 20th and 21st Century Spanish Peninsular Literature
- Gender and Women’s Studies
- Catalan Short Story
- Feminist New Materialisms
- Ethics of care and care economy
- Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky, Special Distinction, January 2023
- Certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Kentucky, 2019
- M.A. in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky, 2018
- M.A. in English, University of Salamanca and University of Valladolid, 2015
- B.A. in English Studies, University of Valladolid, 2014
- Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) - Women's Studies and Diversity Caucuses
- Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cine Españoles Siglo XXI (ALCESXXI)
- Hispanic Studies Summer Research Stipend given by the University of Kentucky, 2019
- Award for Service to the Department given by the University of Kentucky, 2018
- HIGSA Community Service Award given by the University of Kentucky, 2018
- Lectureship program at the University of Kentucky awarded by the University of Valladolid, 2015
- Study abroad Erasmus program at the National University of Ireland, Galway awarded by the University of Valladolid, 2012
Book Chapters
“Porous Matter and Anthropophagy in Concha Alós' Short Stories.” Women’s Agency and the Gothic in the Hispanic World, edited by Sandra García Gutiérrez and Megan DeVirgilis (forthcoming).
Articles (peer-reviewed)
"La mirada aristocrática: caricaturización y exotismo en La gaviota e Insolación”. La Tribuna. Cadernos de Estudos da Casa-Museo Emilia Pardo Bazán 15 (under review).
“Perception and the ‘I’ in Samuel Beckett’s Company and Francis Bacon’s Paintings.” Laocoonte. Revista de Estética y Teoría de las Artes 3. 3 (2016): 135-50.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
- SPAN 3106 – Advanced Spanish Conversation through Spanish Cinema – 7 sections
Designed this course to provide students with the communicative tools to discuss various Latin American and Spanish film productions and their representations of diverse identities and to reflect on their intersections of gender, sexuality, and class.
- SPAN 3105 – Advanced Spanish Grammar and Composition – 6 sections
- SPAN 2105 – Intermediate Spanish I (third-semester language and culture) – 3 sections
University of Kentucky (Instructor of record for a full range of undergraduate Spanish courses –face-to-face, hybrid, and synchronous online–. Teaching responsibilities included teaching and assessment, preparation of course materials, and course leader responsibilities)
- SPA 323 – Introduction to Spanish Translation for Spanish majors and minors – 1 section
- SPA 310 – Spanish Composition through Textual Analysis for majors and minors – 1 section
- SPA 211 – Intermediate Spanish Conversation for Spanish majors and minors – 1 section
- SPA 210 – Advanced Spanish Grammar and Syntax for Spanish majors and minors – 2 sections
- SPA 203 – High Intermediate Spanish (communicative competence and culture) – 3 sections
- SPA 202 – Intermediate Spanish IV (fourth-semester language and culture) – 2 sections
- SPA 201 – Intermediate Spanish III (third-semester language and culture) – 4 sections
- SPA 103 – High Beginner Spanish (communicative competence and culture) – 4 sections
- SPA 102 – Elementary Spanish II (second-semester language and culture) – 2 sections
- SPA 101 – Elementary Spanish I (first-semester language and culture) – 4 sections
“Futuribles inciertos: pedagogías ecofeministas en El Olivo (2016) de Icíar Bollaín.” KFLC. April 2023 (co-authored, peer-reviewed).
“Los rincones oscuros de la maternidad: metamorfosis emancipadora en ‘Mariposas’ de Concha Alós.” Motherhood and the Female Monster in the 20th and 21s Century Spanish Speaking World (panel co-organizer, peer-reviewed). NeMLA Annual Convention. March 2023 (peer-reviewed).
“Polifonía, transcorporeidad y escucha: el Fonoceno en la obra de Irene Solà.” Escribiendo el Fonoceno: naturaleza, folklore y transcorporeidad en los estudios ibéricos contemporáneos (panel co-organizer, peer-reviewed). KFLC. April 2022 (peer-reviewed).
“Entre piel y porcelana: mujeres y domesticidad en Casa de Muñecas de Patricia Esteban Erlés.” The Female Gothic in Latin America and Spain. NeMLA Annual Convention. March 2022 (peer-reviewed).
“Las voces de Irene Solà y Maria Arnal y Marcel Bagés: relaciones alternativas con el Antropoceno.” II Jornadas Virtuales ALCESXXI. July 2021.
“Vuelta a la materia: epistemologías liberadoras en la cuentística de Mercè Rodoreda.” Biannual forum Nuestro Rumbo. University of Kentucky. February 2021.
“Reescribiendo a la mujer desde la tragedia: La Novia de Paula Ortiz.” Cine-Lit 9: Mujer y Género. March 2019 (peer-reviewed).
“Metamorfosis de lo cotidiano: percepción en La meva Cristina i altres contes de Rodoreda.” ALDEEU. University of Virginia. June 2018 (peer-reviewed).