Indiana State University

Faculty Member, Languages, Literatures and Linguistics

Assistant Professor of Spanish

http://www.indstate.edu/lll/faculty_staff/digiovanni_lisa.htm

Thesis Title: Longing for Resistance: Nostalgia and the Novel in Postdictatorial Spain and Chile

About

EDUCATION
University of Oregon
Ph.D., Romance Languages, December 2008
Dissertation: “Longing for Resistance: Nostalgia and the Novel in Postdictatorial Spain and Chile,” directed by Dr. Gina Herrmann
Committee: Dr. Juan Epple, Dr. Carlos Aguirre, Dr. Pedro García-Caro

Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies, Fall 2010

Middlebury College
Master of Arts in Spanish, August 2001

Northern Arizona University 
Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, Spring 2000

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
Indiana State University. Assistant Professor of Spanish
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics 2011-present.

University of Oregon. Lecturer.
Department of Romance Languages 2009, Latin American Studies Program 2011

RESEARCH INTERESTS
19th - 21st Century Spanish Peninsular and Latin American literatures
Representations of war and state violence in literature and film
Memory Studies/ Nostalgia
Women’s and Gender Studies
Film Studies

SCHOLARSHIP
Published Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
“Unsettling Nostalgia in Roberto Brodsky's Últimos días de la historia.” Chasqui 40.2 (2011): 108-124.

“Masculinity, Misogyny and Mass in Los girasoles ciegos by Alberto Méndez” Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, ALEC 37.1 (2012): 39-61.

“Memories of Motherhood and Militancy in Chile: Gender and Nostalgia in Calle Santa Fe by Carmen Castillo.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 21.1 (2012): 15-36.

Interviews (Forthcoming and Under Review) in Peer-Reviewed Journals:
“La tierra incierta de la memoria: entre el veneno nacional y la reconciliación (im)posible. Entrevista con Roberto Brodsky” (accepted pending revisions in La revista chilena de literatura). Collaboration with Pedro García-Caro.

“The Uncertain Territory of Memory: An Interview with Chilean Writer Roberto Brodsky” (under review). Collaboration with Pedro García-Caro.

Editing Collaboration:
MicroQuijotes. ed. Juan Armando Epple. Barcelona: Thule Ediciones, 2005. Assistant editor.

WORKS IN PROGRESS
Book Manuscript:
Longing for Resistance: Nostalgia in Narrative and Film in Spain and Chile. This book examines the reflective and gendered dimensions of nostalgic longing for a pre-dictatorial past as well as the unanticipated nostalgia for the ideological conflict and armed resistance during the regimes in contemporary Spanish and Chilean fiction and film. (In progress. To be completed in 2013)

Book Translation:
Last Days of History. A translation with introduction of Roberto Brodsky’s novel Últimos días de la historia. This novel offers a window into the challenges facing groups of the Chilean left since 1970: utopia, defeat, exile, return and reconciliation in the Pinochet aftermath. (To be completed in 2014)

Manuscript Review:
Invited to review manuscripts for the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2011- present).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Indiana State University, 2011- present.  Assistant Professor of Spanish

Spanish Prose and Poetry, 2011 Created and taught graduate seminar focused on representations of gender in 20th-21st century Spain. Incorporated theories from Women’s and Gender Studies to address the gendered dimensions of the Civil War, the Franco regime and the postdictatorial present.

University of Oregon, 2009-2011. Lecturer.

Memory, History and Representation in Modern Latin America, 2011 Designed and taught undergraduate course centered on the relationship between art and commemorative politics in 20th - 21st century Latin America. Invited Chilean author Roberto Brodsky (Machuca) and Peruvian documentarian Gabriela Martínez to deliver guest lectures.

Repression and Resistance in Spain and Chile, 2009 Created and taught advanced undergraduate transatlantic seminar. Used theories of memory and trauma to analyze literary and cinematographic texts foregrounding 20th century state-sponsored violence in Spain and Chile.

Introduction to Narrative, 2009 Designed and taught undergraduate introduction to literary analysis. Presented the fundamentals of critical theory and practice. Concentrated on critical approaches to the Latin American historical novel La Fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Introduction to 19th-21st Century Spanish Peninsular Literature, 2009 Redesigned and taught survey of modern Spanish literature, culture and history. Combined the analysis of core literary texts from the Enlightenment to the 21st century with films, paintings, photographs and songs.

University of Oregon, 2002-2008. Doctoral Fellow. Instructor of Record.

Spanish for Reading Knowledge, 2007 Designed and taught graduate level language course for students in other fields required to read texts in Spanish. Produced original portfolio of Spanish reading comprehension activities.

Advanced Spanish Oral Skills, 2006 Redesigned and taught intermediate language course to strengthen students’ oral skills. Engaged contemporary debates involving immigration, political exile and globalization in Spain and Latin America through the analysis of feature and documentary film.

Beginning and Intermediate Spanish, 2002-2004 Taught language courses under the direction of Dr. Robert Davis (author of Entrevistas McGraw Hill, 2004 and Portafolio McGraw-Hill, 2008). Focused on the development of language skills through cultural content-based instruction.

University of Oregon, 2010. Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. Facilitator.
Women, Difference and Power WGS 101, Explored central concepts underlying the interdisciplinary field. Topics included the formulation of cultural norms on sexual difference, the gendered division of labor, and the intersections of class, gender and ethnicity.

RECENT CONFERENCES AND INVITED LECTURES
“Masculinity, Misogyny and Mass: José Luis Cuerda’s Adaptation of Alberto Méndez’s Los girasoles ciegos” Cine-Lit International Conference on Hispanic Film and Fiction. Portland, OR. Feb. 2011.

“Framing National Silences: José Luis Cuerda’s Filmic Adaptation of Alberto Méndez’s Los girasoles ciegos.” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference (NWSA). Denver, CO. Nov. 2010.

Participated as guest speaker and co-assistant to UC Davis professor Michael Lazzara in the course Revolution, Dictatorship, Democracy: Chile (1970-2008) in Santiago, Chile. Summer 2008.

“The Historical Novel as Counter-History: Memory and Irony in Estrella Distante by Roberto Bolaño.” 5th Latin American Literatures and Cultures Conference. Colorado Springs, CO. Feb. 2006.

LANGUAGES
• Spanish: Fluent, near native skills
• English: Native speaker
• Italian: Intermediate level speaking, high-level reading

REFERENCES
Gina Herrmann, Department of Romance Languages, University of Oregon, gah@uoregon.edu

Carlos Aguirre, Department of History, University of Oregon, caguirre@uoregon.edu

Michael Lazzara, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Davis, mjlazzara@ucdavis.edu

Pedro García-Caro, Department of Romance Languages, University of Oregon, pgcaro@uoregon.edu

Juan Armando Epple, Department of Romance Languages, University of Oregon, jaepple@uoregon.edu

Cecilia Enjuto-Rangel, Department of Romance Languages, University of Oregon, enjuto@uoregon.edu

Philip W. Scher, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, pscher@uoregon.edu

Amanda Powell, Department of Romance Languages, University of Oregon, apowell@uoregon.edu

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