Bookmark and Share

Department of

Languages and Literatures

Michael Agnew, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Spanish

Michael Agnew, Ph.D., came to the University of San Diego in 2007 from Columbia University. He has taught numerous courses on Spanish and Latin American literature and culture, film, comparative literature, and Spanish philology (historical and general linguistics). He also teaches all levels of Spanish language. His research focuses on the late medieval and early modern periods, in particular on the intersections between historiography and ideology and on book history. He is an advisor for the Medieval-Renaissance minor and is also the on-campus academic advisor for the Madrid-Toledo study abroad program.

Education

Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Romance Languages

M.A., University of Wisconsin at Madison, Spanish

B.A., University of California at Berkeley, Spanish and History (with a specialization in Latin America)

Scholarly and Creative Work

Agnew’s research focuses on the late Middle Ages and early modern period, including Spain’s colonial expansion. His current book project, for which he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humaities and Spain’s Ministry of Culture, analyzes emergent humanist historiography in Spain during the conflictive fifteenth century, concluding with the Catholic Monarchs’ assertion of political hegemony. He is also conducting research on literary representations of Spain and Spaniards in Rome under Charles V, the Italian trade in Spanish books, and tapestries and metatextuality in Cervantes’ Don Quijote. His publications include “The ‘Comedieta’ of the Sátira: Dom Pedro de Portugal’s Monkeys in the Margins” reprinted in Signs on the Edge (Leuven: Peeters, 2007); “Zarzas, calabazas y cartas de relación: el triple peregrinaje imperialista de Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos (2003); and “The Silences of Fernando de Pulgar in his Crónica de los Reyes Católicos,” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (2002).

Teaching Interests

Agnew teaches Spanish language at all levels, general courses on literature, culture and linguistics, and more specialized courses on the Renaissance and Baroque. He taught in Columbia’s rigorous Literature Humanities program, a course of study spanning ancient to modern literature, and continues to exploit the insights he gained from that experience. In recognition of his dedication to teaching, he received Columbia’s Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Award for junior faculty. He has also collaborated with colleagues in other departments in team-taught interdisciplinary courses on medieval music and poetry and on the history of Jewish, Muslim and Christian relations in Spain.

Curriculum

Courses