Dr. Lisa Renee DiGiovanni
University of Oregon, Ph.D., Romance Languages
University of Oregon, Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies
Middlebury College, Master of Arts in Spanish
Northern Arizona University, Bachelor of Arts in Spanish
My area of specialization includes 19th-21st century Spanish Peninsular and Latin American literature and film from a transnational perspective, with an emphasis on the relationship between history, literature, memory, and gender. More specifically, I explore how writers and filmmakers have grappled with the legacies of 20th century dictatorial violence in Spain and Chile, as well as the loss of revolutionary utopianism that characterized the periods of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1939) and the Popular Unity (1970-1973).
As a professor, I teach introductory to advanced level undergraduate courses that integrate language, culture, literature, and film. My approach to teaching always emphasizes critical thinking, interdisciplinarity, and active learning. In my Spanish language courses, I strive to enliven the language through culturally rich content and encourage students to study abroad by sharing my own experiences traveling and researching in Spain, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, France and Italy. At all levels, I aim to challenge students to grapple with their assumptions and to gain depth of cultural and historical knowledge through the study of language, literature and film.
20th – 21st Century Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cinema
Social movements and military dictatorships in Spain and the Southern Cone
The Spanish Civil War
Gender Studies/ Intersections between gender and memory
Published Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
“Visual Archives of Loss and Longing: Mi vida con Carlos by Germán Berger-Hertz.” Journal of Romance Studies 13.3 (2013): 62-74.
“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.
“Masculinity, Misogyny and Mass in Los girasoles ciegos by Alberto Méndez” Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, 37.1 (2012): 39-61.
“Unsettling Nostalgia in Roberto Brodsky's Últimos días de la historia.” Chasqui 40.2 (2011): 108-124.
Collectively Authored Interviews in Peer-Reviewed Journals:
“The Uncertain Territory of Memory: A Conversation with Chilean Writer Roberto Brodsky.” World Literature Today 86.5 (2012): Web. Sept.-Oct. 2012. Collaboration with Pedro García-Caro.
“La tierra incierta de la memoria: Entrevista con Roberto Brodsky” (accepted pending revisions in La revista chilena de literatura). Collaboration with Pedro García-Caro.
“Memory Bridges: A Review of Love and Revolutionary Greetings: An Ohio Boy in the Spanish Civil War by Laurie E. Levinger” (Resource Publications, 2012). The Volunteer, Dec. 2012.
“Modes of Silence and Resistance: Chilean Documentary and Gendered Torture” Submitted, per invitation, to the essay collection Cinema and the State-Tortured Body. Palgrave Macmillan, ed. Mark de Valk. June 1, 2014.
“Childhood Memories of Inner Exile in Spain and Chile: El lector de Julio Verne by Almudena Grandes and Óxido de Carmen by Ana María del Río”. To be submitted, per invitation, to The Iberian and Latin American Transatlantic Studies Reader. Spring 2014.
Book Translation: Last Days of History. Translation of Roberto Brodsky’s novel Últimos días de la historia (2001). Set within the context of Chile’s transition to democracy, this novel recounts stories of revolution, loss, exile, and recovery in the Pinochet aftermath. (To be completed 2015).
“Childhood Memories of Inner Exile in Spain and Chile: El lector de Julio Verne by Almudena Grandes and Óxido de Carmen by Ana María del Río.” Transatlantic Studies Reader Symposium University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. October 31 to November 2, 2013.
“Memory and Nostalgia in Mi vida con Carlos by Germán Berger-Hertz.” Presenter and panel chair: “Visual Archives: Histories of Resistance in Documentary Film and Photography from the Sixties to the Present.” Latin American Studies Association Conference (LASA). Washington, DC. May 31, 2013.
“Inner Exile and Nostalgia in El lector de Julio Verne (2012) by Almudena Grandes.” Panel: “The Transatlantic Poetics of Exile (internal and external).” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). University of Toronto- Toronto, Canada. April 4-7, 2013.
“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 Conference (NWSA). Denver, CO. Nov. 2010.
“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.
COURSES TAUGHT (KSC, UO, ISU):
Contemporary Spanish Novel
Spanish Prose and Poetry
Literary and Cultural Readings in Spanish
Memory, History and Representation in Modern Latin America
Repression and Resistance in Spain and Chile
Introduction to Narrative
Introduction to 19th-21st Century Spanish Peninsular Literature
Advanced Spanish Oral Skills
Women, Difference and Power