Elena Gascón-Vera

Elena Gascón-Vera
Curriculum Vitae

egasconv@wellesley.edu
(781) 283-2401
Faculty emerita
Spanish
Licenciatura, University of Madrid; M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University
Green Hall, 329

Elena Gascón-Vera

Professor Emerita of Spanish

Researches topics from Spanish medieval and Golden Age literature and feminist studies, to Spanish postmodernism and Spanish and Mexican cinema; an educator who intends to teach a higher spiritual and ethical attitude toward life.


Since 1973 I have been teaching at the Department of Spanish of Wellesley College where I was the chair from 1977 to 1984; and from 1999 to 2003. I am the author of Don Pedro, Condestable de Portugal (1979); and Un Mito Nuevo: La Mujer Como Objeto/Sujeto Literario (1992). In addition, I am the co-author  of Homenaje a Jorge Guillén (I978); María Luisa Bombal: Apreciaciones Críticas (1987); Nuevo cine español/New Spanish Cinema (1980); Homenaje a Justina Ruiz de Conde en su Ochenta Cumpleaños (1992); S ignos y Fábulas: Ensayos sobre Pedro Salinas (1993); Wellesley, Recuerdo Ileso: Una Celebración de lo Hispano en el 125 Aniversario de Wellesley College (2002). I have also written more than 70 articles on topics that range from Spanish medieval and Golden Age literature and feminist studies to Spanish postmodernism and Spanish and Mexican cinema.

This is my professional and academic profile, which stands as an explanation that I spend most of my time thinking, reading, writing, and teaching. As a professor, I consider myself an educator who intends to teach a higher spiritual and ethical attitude toward life. As a Spaniard born during the Second World War who grew up during the hunger years of the post-war and General Franco's fascist dictatorship, I see myself as a representative and a witness of a Latin and Hispanic way of being, supported by a rich and varied culture. I try always to transmit to my students not only the teaching of Spanish language, culture, literature, and film, but also how to arrive at a deeper knowledge of alternative modes of thinking which will, hopefully, make them better human beings, honest and critical, responsible and open, tolerant and creative, independent and, above all, free.

I am currently working on several book projects: "Invention and Tragedy: 15th Century Spain and the Spirit of Empire;”; “Enclaves Feministas: Rationality and Subjectivity;” “Women Philosophers of Spain in the 20th Century;” and “The Male Wound: The Representation of Masculinity in Spanish Cinema.” I have been awarded several research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities; Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España; and Instituto de la Mujer de España; and Harvard University’s Center for European Studies.