Education

1990 - Ph.D.,  University of Massachusetts, Golden Age Spanish Literature

My research originally focused on two seventeenth century Spanish writers of novella: Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor and Mariana de Caravajal y Saavedra. I always have been interested in strong females that challenged the traditional social order and were considered ahead of their times. This interest includes a nun who wrote the first treatise about female prisons and some of the convicts. Currently, I am researching a 1587 chivalry novel, believed to be the only one written by a female Spanish writer.