Dissertation: The Transformative Power of Words: The Role of Writing in the Negation of the Self in Mysticism and Fin’ Amor

Director: C. Stephen Jaeger

Committee: Karen Fresco, Marianne Kalinke, and Keith Busby (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

The dissertation explains the puzzling similarities between the love lyric of the troubadours and the writings of medieval mystics by highlighting the function of language in the process of self-negation so important to both types of lovers.

Field Exams: Spanish, Italian, and French literatures of the Middle Ages and Literary Theory and Criticism.

Medieval lyric and narrative poetry in French, Occitan, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian;  Philosophy of Literature as well as Linguistic theory; Psychoanalytic theory and other literary theories; medieval and modern ideas on the arts, the purpose of the arts and the effects of music and literature on the listener, reader, or entire society; troubadour lyric and the attempts to preserve the troubadour tradition—the Consistori of Toulouse and Barcelona, treatises on lyric, movement into new territories;  Adoption of literary traditions in new contexts for new purposes;  Commonalities between literatures of all periods; Body-Mind relationships; Love literature; Mysticism and mystical texts; hybrid and bi-lingual texts: narratives with lyrical insertions.

* Monson, Don A. Andreas Capellanus, Scholasticism, and the Courtly Tradition.  Book Review for  

   Encomia, forthcoming.

* “Language for Lovers: Lessons from the Troubadours and Mystics.” 

     Invited to submit manuscript to Words of Love, Love of Words in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 

     Ed. Albrecht Classen, forthcoming.

* “Pel doutz chan: Troubadours and Trouvères Theorizing the Psychological Effects of Song.”

   Invited to submit manuscript to Tenso: Bulletin of the Société Guilhem IX, in progress. 

* “Metamorfosis de un hada: Melusina en las versiones de Jean d’Arras, Coudrette, y

    Mujica Láinez.” Lo Fantástico en el Espejo. Ed. Ana Maria Morales, Forthcoming.

* “Construyendo el Deseo de Dios: San Bernardo y el Monasterio Cisterciense.” A+       

   Revista de arquitectura. Santafé de Bogotá. Forthcoming.

* “Instructing the Court: Raimon Vidal’s Pedagogy for the Courtly Joglar.” Selected Proceedings of the 11^th    

    Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society.  Ed. Christopher Kleinhenz and Keith Busby.   

    Boydell & Brewer, 2006.

* “The Loss of Love’s Emotions: The Urban Consistori and the Reconceptualization   

    of  Love Lyric.” Les Emotions au coeur de la ville (XIVe-XVIe siècle). Ed. Elodie   

    Lecuppre-Desjardin et Anne-Laure Van Bruaene. Studies in  

    European Urban History.  Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2005.

* Contributor to Who’s Who of Twentieth Century Poetry. Routledge Press, 2000.       

   Entries on: Adelia Prado, Blanca Varela, Alfonsina Storni, Clementina Suarez, Ramon  

   López Velarde, Angel Cruchaga Santa Maria.

*  “The Lady and Troubadour Performance in the Courts” To be presented at The 12^th

   Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society. Les Facultés des Lettres de L’Université de    

  Genève et de l’Université de Lausanne, July-August 2007.

* “The Social and Linguistic Translation of the Urban Joglar to the Courtly Trobador in Guiraut Riquier.” To be presented at The 42^nt International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2007.

* “The Mad Troubadours: From Canso to Razo.” Presented at The Sixty-Third annual meeting of  

  the South Central Modern Language Association, Dallas, Texas, October 2006.

* “Memorializing and Perverting Troubadour Lyric and Performance in the Fourteenth Century.”      

    Presented at The 41^st International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University,    

    Kalamazoo, May 2006.

* “The Speculum: Between the Image and the Word in Marguerite D’Oingt.”  Presented at the   

   Society for French Historical Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana, April 2006.

* “The Function of the Visual in the Troubadour Love Canso: Dreaming and Envisioning the   

   Domna.”  Presented at The 2005 Graduate Student Conference.  The Newberry Library

   Center for Renaissance Studies, Chicago, June 2005.

* “Pel doutz chan: Troubadours Theorizing the Psychological Effects of Song.”  Presented at The

   40^th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2005.

* “Instructing the Court: Raimon Vidal’s Pedagogy for the Courtly Joglar.” Presented at The 11^th

   Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society.  University of Wisconsin- Madison, Wisconsin,   

   July-August 2004.

* “Of Sound and Sense: The Notion of Lyric and the Methods of Lyrical Insertion in  

    Raimon Vidal and Jean Renart.” Presented at The 39^th International Congress on Medieval   

    Studies.  Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2004.

* “La Metamorfosis de un hada: Melusina en las versiones medievales y en El Unicornio  

   de Mujica Láinez.” Presented at Lo Fantástico en el Espejo: IV Coloquio Internacional de    

   Literatura Fantástica. Universitat Basel, Switzerland, September 2003.

* “The Loss of Love’s Emotions: The Urban Consistori and the Reconceptualization of   

    Love Lyric.” Presented at A Corps et à cris: Manifestation et representation des emotions en 

    Milieu  Urbain (XIVe –XVIe siècle) Organized by the Pole d’attraction Interuniversitaire

    V-  10, at Universiteit Gent, Belgium, August 2003.

* “The Imaginaire as Model of Mystical Experience: The Case of Sainte Thérèse de

    Lisieux.” Presented at Language, Literature, and the Imaginaire. An Scoil Teanga agus  

    Litríochta XII UCC School of Languages and Literature Annual Conference on  

    Cross-Currents in Literature, Film and the Visual Arts. University of Cork, Ireland, 

    May 2003. 

* “Fin’ Amor: the Dissemination (and Evolution) of an Ideology of Love through

    Literature.” Guest lecture for Filologia Anglesà, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, 

    October 24, 2002.

* “La Imagen en el pensamiento místico de la edad media.” Guest lecture for the lecture    

   series: La Filosofía de la Imagen at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de

   Filosofía, Santafe de Bogotá, Colombia  May 7, 2002.

* “El arte y el pensamiento medieval a través su literatura,” Guest speaker for radio 

    program series on the Middle Ages for Charlas en la biblioteca, Radio Difusora 2,

    Colombia, May and June 2002.

* “Parladura natural e drecha: The Essence of Language in the Work of Raimon Vidal 

    de Besalù.” Presented at The Late Middle Ages Graduate Student Conference at Princeton. Princeton    

    University, New Jersey, March 2001.

* “Shifts in Space: From the Diabolical to the Asylum in Tayeb Salih’s Season of   

   Migration to the North.” Presented at The 2nd Annual Midwest Conference on African Studies.  

   University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, March 1997.   

University of South Carolina-Aiken

Fall 2006

Instructor in Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures

                                    Beginning Spanish                                 

                                    Intermediate Spanish

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

                        Spring 2006

                                    Comparative Literature Instructor      

                                    The Grimms’ Fairy Tales in their European Context

                        Fall 2005

                                    Spanish Instructor

                                    Intensive Spanish for Beginners

Spring 2005

                                    Comparative Literature Instructor      

                                    The Grimms’ Fairy Tales in their European Context

                                    Phil(m)osophy: Philosophy through Film

                        Fall 2004

                                    Comparative Literature Instructor

                                    Masterpieces of Western Literature: The Ancient World through the Renaissance

Universitat de Barcelona

                        Academic Years 2002-2004

Facultat de Filologia

Division de Filologia Anglesà i Alemany

Profesora lectora visitante                                  

Producció Textual

Literatura Anglesà dels Origens

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

                        Summer 2002

                                    Department of Educational Psychology

                                    Research Assistant

                                    Study on the learning of notions of race, races, and racism

                                    Department of Family Development

                                    Research Assistant

                                    Study on transmission of ethnic identity in Hispanics living in the U.S.

                        Fall 2001

                                    Religious Studies/English Literature Instructor

                                    The Bible as Literature

Spring 2001

                                    French Instructor

                                    Intermediate French

                                    Comparative Literature Instructor

Masterpieces of Western Literature: From Neo-classicism to Modern Literature

Fall 2000

                                    French Instructor

                                    Intensive French for Beginners

                                    Comparative Literature Instructor

                                    Masterpieces of Western Literature: The Ancient World through the Renaissance

Eugène Delacroix High-school in Maisons-Alfort, France

                        Fall 1999- Spring 2000

                                    Assistante d’Anglais

                                    English, all levels

Edouard Branly High-school in Nogent–sur-Marne, France

Spring 1999

                                    Locutrice Native

                                     English, all levels                      

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Spring 1998

Spanish Instructor

Intensive Spanish for Beginners

Comparative Literature Instructor

Masterpieces of Western Literature: From Neo-classicism to Modern Literature

Fall 1997

Comparative Literature Instructor

Masterpieces of Western Literature: The Ancient World through the Renaissance

Spring 1997

Spanish Instructor

Beginning Spanish

Fall 1996

Religious Studies Graduate Assistant

An Introduction to Islam

* Foreign Language Enhancement Program for Study at the University of Wisconsin, Summer 2005.

* Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Grant to organize an interdisciplinary reading  

   group, “The Signifying Body: Dismemberment, Body Parts and Embodiment” 2004-2005 renewed   

   2005-2006.

* Drobvny grant for study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, NY, Summer 2001.

* University of Illinois grant to create a website for Comparative Literature

   survey classes, Summer 1996.

* Panel co-organizer with Michelle Bolduc, “Performing Texts” a session to be held at The 42^nd    

   International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2007.

* Panel co-organizer with Carolin Esser, “The Arts of Meditation” a session sponsored 

   by the Worldwide University Network (WUN) and to be held at The 41^st International Congress on   

   Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, May 2006.

* Volunteer with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, researching the       

   implementation of English as a Foreign Language curriculum into Middle Tennessee schools.

* Creator and organizer of “The Signifying Body: Dismemberment, Body Parts, and  

   Embodiment,” a funded reading group 2004-2006.

* Organizer of Medieval colloquia at the University of Illinois, Spring 2001.

* Treasurer of the Colombian Student Association, Academic year 2000-2001.

* Volunteer with the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Association studying

    mental healthcare needs in the Hispanic community, Summer 1999.

* Co-organizer of “The Texts of Spiritual and Devotional Practice in Late Medieval 

   Hispania.”  An exhibit featuring manuscripts and Incunabula of medieval mystics Rare    

   Book Room, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, February 1998.

* Resident of French house and instructor representative of weekly Pause Café for  

   students interested in exchanges with Francophones 1996-1997; 2000-2001.

 Committee Work

* International Programs

* American Democracy Project

                        International Courtly Literature Society

                        Société Guilhem IX

                        Modern Language Association

                        South Central Modern Language Association

                        French Historical Studies

Fluent Speaking, Reading, Writing: French, Spanish

Reading and Basic Conversation Proficiency: Italian, Hebrew, Catalan

Reading knowledge: Old French, Occitan, Latin