Ryan Giles

Ryan Giles

Professor, Spanish and Portuguese

Education

  • Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005
  • M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003
  • B.A., magna cum laude, University of North Carolina at Asheville, 1999

Affiliations

  • Medieval Studies Institute
  • Renaissance Studies Program

About Ryan Giles

My main area of research is medieval and Renaissance Iberian literature and culture, and more specifically parody and satire, intersections with sanctity and popular devotion, material culture, ritual and theology. As an Hispanomedievalist, I primarily analyze the works of premodern Iberian authors such as Gonzalo de Berceo, Alfonso X, and Juan Ruiz. Because much of my work examines cultural phenomena in changing contexts from the Middle Ages into the early modern period, I also research the works of later Spanish writers from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century, including Fernando de Rojas, Francisco Delicado, Quevedo, and others.

Specializations

  • Medieval/Renaissance Literatures
  • Parody and Satire
  • Early Picaresque Writing
  • Sanctity and Popular Devotion
  • Myth and Ritual
  • Material Culture
  • Art in Literature
  • Theology and Literature
Monographs
  • Inscribed Power: Amulets and Magic in Early Spanish Literature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
  • The Laughter of the Saints: Parodies of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Edition/Translation
  • Labyrinth of Fortune / Laberinto de Fortuna. Edited and translated by Frank A. Domínguez and Ryan D. Giles. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2025.
Edited volumes
  • A New Companion to the Libro de buen amor. Edited by, Ryan D. Giles and José Manuel Hidalgo. Leiden: Brill, 2021. 
  • The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia: Unity in Diversity. Edited by, E. Michael Gerli and Ryan D. Giles. New York: Routledge, 2021. 
  • Beyond Sight: Smell, Taste, Touch and Hearing in Iberian Literatures and Cultures, 1200-1750. Edited by, Ryan D. Giles and Steven Wagschal. Toronto University of Toronto Press, 2018.
  • Charlemagne and his Legend in Early Spanish Literature and Historiography. Edited by, Matthew Bailey and Ryan D. Giles. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 2016.
Selected articles, essays, and published papers (2015-present)
  • “The Thornbush and the Tattered Garment Shared Metaphors in the Libro de buen amor and Proverbios Morales.”A Companion to "Mester de Clerecía" Poetry. Eds.   Robin M. Bower and Matthew V. Desing. Brill: Leiden, 2024. 397-414
  • “A Tree of Lies: Approaches to Mendacity in Part One of the Conde Lucanor (Exemplo 26 and Other Tales).” Hispanic Review 92.1 (2024): 159-80.
  • “The Boy in the Oven. The Arabic Infancy Gospel and an Anti-Jewish Tale in Medieval Iberia.” Quaderni di storia religiosa medievale 25.2 (2022): 263-88.
  • “Thirty Pieces of Silver: Interpreting Anti-Jewish Imagery in the Poema de mío Cid. Bestsellers and Masterpieces: The Changing Medieval Canon. Eds. Heather Blurton and Dwight F. Reynolds. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2022. 113-39. 
  • “Divine Food: Making and Tasting Honey in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.” The Gastronomical Arts in Spain: Food and Etiquette. Eds. Frederick A. de Armas and James Mandrell. Toronto: U Toronto P, 2022. 29-44. 
  • “'No hay quien vele a Alonso': Imitatio Mariae and the Problem of Conversion in Leonor López de Córdoba’s Memorias." Gender and Exemplarity in Medieval and Early Modern Spain. Eds. María Morrás, Rebeca Sanmartín Bastida, and Yonsoo Kim. Leiden: Brill, 2020. 193-211.
  • "The Problem of Interreligious Peacemaking in the Works of Ramon Llull." Religions 11.4 (2020): 1-10.
  • “‘Faith Then Cometh by Hearing’: Latin Orality and the Typological Framework of the Milagros de Nuestra Señora.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 96.10 (2019): 1031- 43.
  • "Advocate of Eve: Marian Parturition in Medieval Iberian Literature and Culture." Christ, Mary, and the Saints: Reading Religious Subjects in Medieval and Renaissance Spain.  Leiden: Brill, 2018. 37-56.
  • “'Coraje y denuedo': Don Quijote’s Battle of the Sheep and Francisco Antonio’s Avisos para soldados y gente de guerra (1590).” Los cielos se agotaron de prodigios: Essays in Honor Frederick A. de Armas. Eds. Christopher B. Weimer, Kerry Wilks, and Benjamin J. Nelson. Newark, DE: Juan de la cuesta, 2018. 293- 304.
  • "'Aquellos antiguos libros': Approaches to Parody in Celestina." A Companion to Celestina. Leiden: Brill, 2017. 161-72.
  • “'Nuestra captividad': Captivity and Religious Difference in an Early Seventeenth-Century Translation of the Epistola Rabbi Samuelis (1339)". Romance Quarterly 64.2 (2017): 55-65.
  • “’Royendo los santos’: The Parody of Holy Madness in the Celestina.” Hermeneutics of Textual Madness: Re-Readings / Herméneutique de la folie textuelle: re-lectures. 2 vols. Fasano: Schena editore / Paris: Alain Baudry & Cie Editeur, 2016. 2: 515-30.
  • "The Chancellor’s Chains: Ex-Votos and Marian Devotion in the Rimado de Palacio". Medievalia 18.2 (2016): 27-42.
  • "Las nuevas y viejas tecnologías del manuscrito: comentarios sobre el códice digital del Auto de los reyes magos." Hispanismos del mundo: diálogos y debates en (y desde) el Sur. Coord. Leonardo Funes. Buenos Aires: Editorial Mino y Dávila, (2016): 287-94.
  • “'Mira mis llagas': Heridas divinas en las obras de Brígida de Suecia y Teresa de Jesús." eHumanista: Journal of Iberian Studies 32 (2016): 36-49.
  • “Garden Spaces and Textual Materialities: The Exorcistic Prelude to the Razón de amor”.  La corónica 44.1 (2015): 115-33.
  • “Apocalyptic Sealing in the Lozana andaluza." In and Of the Mediterranean: Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Studies.  Eds. Núria Silleras-Fernández and Michelle Hamilton. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, (2015): 208-23.

Honors & Awards

  • Collaborative Fellowship, jointly awarded, Institute for Advanced Study, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2016."
  • John K. Walsh Prize for outstanding essay, 2008 and 2016. Division of Medieval Spanish Language and Literature/LLC Iberian Medieval Forum of the Modern Language Association.
  • Fellowship, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago, 2009-10.
  • National Endowment of the Humanities, Summer Seminar, 2003 and 2009.

Teaching

Graduate Courses
S618: Topics in Medieval Spanish Literature: Love in Medieval Spanish Literature, before and after the Plague.
S628: Topics Early Modern Spanish Literature: La novela picaresca: trayectoria y debates críticos
S618: Topics in Medieval Spanish Literature: El mester de clerecía y el Libro de buen amor
S618: Topics in Medieval Spanish Literature: Tradiciones épicas de la Edad Media
S528: Spanish Literature of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
S518: Spanish Medieval Literature

Undergraduate Courses
S474: Hispanic Literature and Society
S423: The Craft of Translation
S407: Cultural Icons of Spain
S334: Panoramas of Hispanic Literature
S328: Introduction to Hispanic Literature
S324: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures

Current Research Projects

  • "Fictions of Peace in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia."