Fernando Gomez

Assistant Professor of Modern Languages-Spanish

Contact 309-341-7394 fgomez@knox.edu

General Interests
"In my research I enjoy investigating the diverse ways authors have depicted the human experience over the centuries. Specifically, I have analyzed the evolution of certain representations of death and the afterlife, the world as a stage, life as a pilgrimage, love, free-will, and the possibilities / limits of human knowledge. In the classroom, I hope to foster an appreciation of what an important role the medium of literature plays in our lives and how it provides a space in which we can imagine, hypothesize, and negotiate such enigmatic issues as these in a way other mediums cannot."

Years at Knox: 2005 to present

Education
Ph.D., 2007, University of California-Santa Barbara
M.A., Spanish and Spanish-American Literature, 2003, University of California-Santa Barbara.
M.A., Teaching International Languages and Cultures, 2001, California State University-Chico.
B.A., Spanish, 1997, California State University-Chico.

Teaching Interests
Golden age literature of Spain, colonial literature; hispanic drama; history of ideas; literary theory.

Selected Professional Accomplishments

Honors/Grants
Department of Spanish and Portuguese Tuition Fee Fellowship, University of California-Santa Barbara, 2001-present.
Philip Green Wright-Lombard College Prize for Distinguished Teaching by a non-tenured faculty member, Knox College, 2008.
The Samuel A. Wofsy Memorial Prize for Outstanding PhD Student, 2007.
Hispanic Language and Literatures Outstanding Graduate Student Performance in Portuguese Literature, University of California-Santa Barbara, 2004.
The Samuel A. Wofsy Memorial Award for Academic Excellence to the Outstanding 2002-2003 M.A., University of California-Santa Barbara, 2003.

Publications
"Religion, Heritage, and Politics: Literary Representations of St. Patrick's Purgatory in Spain during the 1620s and the Agenda of the Irish Émigrés Behind Them". Forthcoming in Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures.

"Inverting Plato's Allegory of the Cave: The Cave as a Backstage to the World-Theater in Calderon's La Vida es Sueno and La Hija del Aire." Forthcoming in Bulletin of the Comediantes.

Transcription of The Sacke of Roome. E-Humanista, 2004.

"De la revoluci?n exterior a la interior en Zoot Suit." Nerter 5-6 (2003): 68-70.

Presentations
"Savages or Saints? Divergent Representations of the Irish in Spanish Golden-Age Theatre". AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theatre Symposium, El Paso, Texas, 2011.

"Tales of Pilgrimage and Purgatory: St. Patrick in the Golden-Age Literature of Spain." Paper, Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2010.

"Inverting Plato's Allegory of the Cave: The Cave as Backstage to the World-theater in Various Plays by Calderon de la Barca." AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium, El Paso, Texas, 2008.

"Reading Don Quijote 400 years later." Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 2006.

"The relationship between the cave and metatheater in La hija del aire." Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas, 2004.

"The pluralistic functions of the cave in the theater of Calderón de la Barca." Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, 2004.

"De la revoluci?n exterior a la interior en Zoot Suit." University of California-Santa Barbara, 2003.

Campus & Community Involvement
Member, Modern Language Association.
Member, Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

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What Students Say
"Fernando Gomez brings a certain enthusiasm into his classroom that immediately draws students into open discussion. Not only is it evident that he has a passion for what he teaches, but he is able to reach out to each and every student through his approachable demeanor. He gives students prompt feedback about their assignments and is always readily available for further discussion outside the classroom. He is an extremely hardworking professor and motivates his students to be the same by his example."
-Nirupa Kartha