Kathleen Myers

Kathleen Myers

Professor, Spanish and Portuguese

Education

  • Ph.D., Hispanic Studies, Brown University, 1986
  • B.A., History and Spanish, Ripon College, 1980

Affiliations

  • History

Selected books

  • In the Shadow of Cortés: Conversations along the Route of Conquest University of Arizona Press, 2015. 357 pp.
  • Fernández de Oviedo’s Chronicle of America: A New History for a New World . University of Texas Press, 2007. 324 pp.
  • Neither Saints nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish America.  Oxford University Press, 2003. 273 pp.
  • La autobiografía espiritual de Madre María de San José, in collaboration with Amanda Powell and Mario Ortiz Acuña (translation and new edition of selections from my 1993 and 1999 publications.)   Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta Monographs in Hispanic Studies, 2011.  198 pp.
  • ‘A Wild Country out in the Garden’: The Spiritual Journals of a Colonial Mexican Nun, in collaboration with Amanda Powell.  Indiana University Press, 1999. 421 pp.
  • Word from New Spain: the Spiritual Autobiography of María de San José (1656-1719).  TRAC, Liverpool University Press, 1993. 234 pp.

Selected articles

  • ”Aztec Dance along the Ruta de Cortés: A Search for new Ethnic Identities.” Special issue on Colonial Studies, Hispanófila, 171 (2014): 157-180.
  • “Spanish Catholicism in the Post-Columbian New World (1500-1680s)” with Pablo Garcia.  Cambridge History of Religions in America.  Ed. Stephen J. Stein.  Cambridge University Press (2012): 177-199.
  • “Historical Narrative.” Lexikon of the Hispanic Baroque: Technologies of a Transatlantic Cultural Transfer.  Ed.  Kenneth Mills et al.  University of Texas Press (2013). 
  • “A Transatlantic Perspective: The Influence of Teresa’s Model on New World Women,” in Approaches to Teaching Literature: Teresa of Avila.  Ed. Alison Weber.  New York: The Modern Languages Association of America, (2009):  148-156.
  • “Las Casas versus Oviedo: The Polemic between ‘Defender of the Indians’ and the ‘Enemy of the Indians’.”  Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolomé de las Casas.  Eds.  Santa Arias and Eyda Merediz. New York: the Modern Languages Association of America, (2008): 147-158.

Exhibit author

  • “In the Shadow of Cortés: From Veracruz to Mexico City” (2009 – present), traveling exhibit with former National Geographic photographer Steve Raymer: University of Kansas, Michigan State University, University of Purdue-Calumet, University of Kentucky, University of Miami-Ohio, Hanover College, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan, Indiana State University, Mathers Museum of World Cultures-Indiana University.

Funding

  • Funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, Indiana University, the Lilly Foundation, Spain's Ministry for Education and Science (at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Madrid), the Ministry for Cultural Cooperation Between Spain and the United States, Spain’s Ministry for Education, Culture, and Sports, and the Huntington Library.

Awards

  • Distinguished Scholar Award, Office of Women's Affairs, Indiana University, 2005
  • Outstanding Mentor Award, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 2008 and 2015
  • Trustees Teaching Award, 2014; Nominee, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008; Student’s Choice Award, 2009, 2010

Teaching

  • The Construction of ‘New Spain’ in 16th C. Visual and Verbal Narratives
  • Indigeneity in Mexico across the Centuries: History and Cultural Narratives
  • Colonial Latin American Studies: The State of the Field
  • Rewriting the Conquest of Mexico: Theories and Practices
  • Sor Juana and her Cultural Milieu
  • Service-Learning, Spanish Culture and Pre-schoolers (S411)

Current research

  • Cultural Geographies, History, and the role of Trashumancia in Contemporary Spain; funded by Indiana University’s New Frontiers in the Humanities and Spain's Ministry for Education, Culture and Sports.
  • New Frontiers in Colonial Latin American Studies, edited collection with Pablo García.