Biography
In 2024 I became the Editor of Estreno, Cuadernos del teatro espa簽ol contempor獺neo, the only academic journal dedicated to Spains contemporary theater that is published in the United States. Website:
Recipient of 2016 Mary Louise Marfuggi Faculty Award for Academic Advisement
Born and raised in a tiny village outside of Canterbury, Kent, England, I spent my childhood reading, listening to records and playing in the woods, fields and hop gardens around my home. My father was a professor of Finance and Accounting and my mother was an ESL and History teacher at the local community college, so our house was always filled with students from all around the world. We also traveled extensively around the British Isles and France during the long academic summers when I was a young child, and I am sure that my love for other cultures was born in part from wandering around ancient castles and cathedrals, visiting remote villages, trying to communicate with locals and tasting new foods. Then in 1983, when I was a teenager, I had the ultimate cultural experience: we emigrated as a family to the United States because of my fathers work. Talk about a culture shock!
My undergraduate degree was a double major in Business Administration and Spanish, as I was convinced that I wanted to be an international businesswoman. However, my magical study abroad experience at the University of Granada, Spain changed my mind. I realized that I needed to keep learning more about Spanish language and literature. I went to graduate school at UConn where I received my M.A. and PhD. in Spanish Literature. My area of research is contemporary Spanish drama by women from the 1980s to the present, a specialization that began, I think, when I asked my Spanish drama professor why we were not reading any plays by women in his class. His reply? Great question! Why dont you do an independent study with me on this? We can work together to figure this out. It turns out to have been a great question to ask because I ended up writing my dissertation on Spanish women dramatists (they do exist!). Aside from teaching seminars on Modern Spanish Drama and dramatist and poet Federico Garc穩a Lorca, I also teach all levels of language, literature and culture at 17勛圖厙. My love for theater, both as text and as performance, permeates all of my classes and informs my teaching style.
Courses
- Directed Independent Elementary Spanish 1
- Directed Independent Elementary Spanish 2
- Intermediate Spanish 1
- Intermediate Spanish 2
- Aspects of Spanish Culture
- Readings in Spanish Literature
- Federico Garc穩a Lorca
Research Interests
- Contemporary Spanish Theater by Women from the early 1980s to the present
- Topics investigated include Female Solidarity, Historical Memory and the Re-writing of Myth and History
Books
Freear-Papio, Helen, and Candyce Crew Leonard, editors. The Theatre of Twenty-First Century Spain. Identities, Anxieties, and Social Immediacies. El teatro de Espa簽a del siglo XXI. Identidades, ansiedades y urgencias sociales. Vernon Press, 2022.
Articles
Babel entre el periodismo, la tragedia griega y el teatro documental. Con una breve entrevista a Juana Escabias. In Juana Escabias, una dramaturga en la trinchera del teatro espa簽ol del siglo XXI. Isabelle Reck, ed. Madrid, Ant穩gona (2022): 65-84.
"Diana Marta de Paco Serrano. 捩棗梭勳款棗紳穩硃." Cerstin Bauer-Funke (ed.). Spanisches Theater des 20. und fr羹hen 21. Jahrhunderts in Einzeldarstellungen, Berlin, ESV (2021): 275-88.
Apr矇s mois le d矇luge (Despu矇s de m穩 el diluvio) de Llu簿sa Cunill矇: metateatro, trauma y compromiso. In Crisis y creatividad. C. Bauer-Funke, ed. Hildesheim, Olms (2019): 217-227.
Mitotop穩as en Casandra de Diana de Paco. Escenarios de utop穩a, distop穩a, y miop穩a en el teatro contempor獺neo de Espa簽a del siglo XXI. D. Hitchcock y C. Leonard, eds, Editorial Puentes Dramat繳rgicos, LLC, New Harmony, Indiana, (2019): 71-82.
G矇nero, raza y esperanza: el teatro biogr獺fico feminista de Itziar Pascual. In Teatro (auto) biogr獺fico. J. Romera Castillo, ed. Madrid: Visor Libros (2019): 437-452.
Las voces del otro en Babel de Juana Escabias In Juana Escabias: Estudios sobre su teatro. Una investigaci籀n transoce獺nica. Ed. R. Fialdini, ed. Salamanca: Benilde (2018): 161-181.
Resistance Retold: Historical and Mythical Narratives in Plays by Romero, Resino, Pascual and de Paco Serrano. Revista feminismo/s 30 (2017): 47-68.
Mito, g矇nero y emociones: Medea, Clitemnestra y Casandra en la obra dram獺tica de Diana M. de Paco Serrano. In Myth and Emotions. J. M. Losada and A. Lipscomb, eds. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars P (2017): 107-116.
Diana M. de Paco Serranos Killers: The Challenges of Staging Violence Perpetrated by Women. Teatro. Revista de Estudios Culturales / A Journal of Cultural Studies 31 (2017): 5-20.
捩棗梭勳款棗紳穩硃: cuatro mujeres en busca de un mito. Prologue to 捩棗梭勳款棗紳穩硃 in Casandras. Diana M. de Paco Serrano. Madrid: Esperpento Ediciones Teatrales (2016): 31-37.
La m繳sica de la morgue: NN12 de Gracia Morales y Esp矇rame en el cielo, o mejor no de Diana M. de Paco Serrano. In Teatro y m繳sica en los inicios del siglo XXI. J. Romera Castillo, ed. Madrid: Visor Libros (2016): 274-285.**
Female Authorship, Choruses and Fugues: Collaborative Retellings in Itziar Pascuals Mujeres and Variaciones sobre Rosa Parks. Estreno 42.1 (2016): 50-63.
Clubs & Organizations
Faculty Mentor for "Off the Record" acapella group
Member of NeMLA (North East Modern Language Association)
On the Editorial Boards of: Estreno Studies 玖ttps://www.usi.edu/liberal-arts/world-languages/estreno-studies/estreno-board; Teor穩a y pr獺ctica del teatro. Performance y artes visuales. Estudios hispan籀filos y lus籀fanos; Serie Editum Teatro at the Universidad de Murcia 玖ttps://www.um.es/en/web/editum/colecciones/teatro; Verbeia. Journal of English and Spanish Studies. 玖ttps://journals.ucjc.edu/VREF/comiteevaluador