Holloway Hall 100E
khbrower@salisbury.edu
(410) 543-6442

Ph.D. (1985)  Pennsylvania State University, in Spanish with a minor
                    in Portuguese

M.A. (1981)   Pennsylvania State University, in Spanish with
                   Portuguese component

B.A.  (1979)   Salisbury University, in Spanish and English
        (1978)   Study Abroad Semester in Spain (Valencia)

Associate Dean, Fulton School of Liberal Arts
Chair, Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies
Director, Salisbury Abroad: Spain summer/semester/year programs
Director, SU Summer Program in Spain
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Studies Major Program
Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Curriculum Change (Chair)
Fulton School of Liberal Arts Select Committee on Comprehensive         Curriculum Reform (Chair)
Fulton School of Liberal Arts Curriculum Reform "Special Operations"         Committee (Co-Chair)
Faculty Senate Honors Program Committee (Chair)
Fulton School of Liberal Arts Faculty Grants Committee (Chair) International Studies Major Steering Committee
Faculty Senate International Programs Committee
Faculty Senate Long Range Academic Planning Committee
University Governance Consortium Fiscal Advisory Committee
University Grants and Sponsored Research Advisory Committee University Forum Executive Committee

 
1986-1997 Dickinson College

1992-1997: Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese

1986-1992: Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese

• Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese 
• Coordinator, Portuguese Program
• Director, Málaga Summer Immersion Program 
• On-campus coordinator, Málaga Fall/Year Program 
• Coordinator, Latin American Studies Certificate Program
• Latin American Studies Senior Thesis Advisor
• International Studies Orals Panel Member (for Spain, Spanish America, and Brazil)
• Student Internship Advisor
• Freshman Seminar Faculty
• Chair, Academic Program Committee 
• Educational Policy and Student Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees
• President, Mid-Atlantic Association of Luso-Brazilianists 
• Secretary, Mid-Atlantic Association of Luso-Brazilianists

1985-1986 Gettysburg College: Assistant Professor of Spanish

1980-1985 Pennsylvania State University: Teaching Assistant of Spanish and Portuguese

Prior to returning to SU, my undergraduate alma mater, in 1997, I spent most of my career as a Latin Americanist, specializing in Spanish American and Brazilian narrative, particularly the novel of the "Boom" period of the 1960's and the likes of Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, Jorge Amado and Clarice Lispector. My academic and scholarly identities were split pretty evenly between things Spanish American and things Brazilian (see examples below), including even the language courses I taught (Spanish and Portuguese).  I also worked in Inter-American (Spanish American, Brazilian and North American) comparative literary studies and made occasional forays into Spanish (Peninsular) literature. 

Since coming to SU, I have continued to work as a Latin Americanist, but I have also been able to pursue my long-time and very personal interest in all things related to Spain (literature, culture and civilization), including everything from directing the SU Summer Program in (Málaga) Spain, launched in 2001, to teaching Don Quijote, and, currently, directing the Salisbury Abroad: Spain summer/semester/year programs.   In this way, I have come to "work both sides of the ocean."  I have continued to write about Spanish American and Brazilian literatures, but I have begun to pursue more projects in Peninsular literature as well, particularly regarding Don Quijote. 

In the past several years, I have also lectured and written about the role and presence and influence of Catholicism in the history and culture of Spain and Latin America.  I presented a four-part lecture series on this subject at the local Catholic church in January 2002, and I have since presented somewhat different and shorter versions of the series, including a talk I gave as part of SU's Latin American Culture Series; that talk was entitled "Spain's Religious Legacy in Latin American Culture: Not Just a Sunday Obligation."  I am currently continuing my research in this area by writing a book on the subject (see "Scholarship in Progress" below), as well as working on the creation of a topics course on religion in Spanish and Latin American history and culture. 

As a Latin Americanist who only taught and wrote about literature until just a few years ago, I never envisioned my teaching and research paths heading back toward Spain, or so deeply into cultural issues, or into religion, but I have found that one's pilgrimage as a scholar is most rewarding when the trip follows paths that one never anticipated treading. 

Books Published

Jorge Amado: New Critical Essays. Co-edited with Earl Fitz (Vanderbilt University) and Enrique Martínez-Vidal (Dickinson College).  New York: Routledge, 2001.

The first work of its kind on Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado, this collection contains eighteen English-language critical essays on the works of the most famous novelist of twentieth-century Brazil.  The essays were written by some of the most renowned and respected Brazilianists in the U.S. 

Contemporary Latin American Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography.  Pasadena: Salem Press, 1989. 

      This book contains 663 annotated entries on English-language criticism   covering 23 contemporary (1940s through 1989)  Spanish American and Brazilian novelists and short story writers and, collectively, 104 of their works.  Widely available in North American college and university libraries.

Scholarship in Progress

Catholicism in Spain and Latin America: History, Culture, Tradition, and Change

"One Flew Over La Mancha: R.P.McMurphy as a Postmodern (Per)Version of Don Quixote"

"Art Illuminates Art: Using Velázquez's Las meninas to Teach Don Quijote"

Spanish 309: Summer Program in Spain.  In this five-week program, students live and study in Málaga, Spain, from late May through late June or early July.  Program participants live and take meals in Spanish homes and take classes on Spanish language, culture, history, and art at the Universidad de Málaga's Cursos para Extranjeros center.  The Program also includes excursions to Granada, Sevilla, and Córdoba, in the company of the Program director and a Universidad de Málaga art history professor.  When serving as on-site director, I meet with students each day, encourage cross-cultural observations (including the writing of weekly essays related to each student's experience in Spain) and the discussion thereof, and otherwise serve as "cultural broker" for Program participants, as well as liaison between SU and Universidad de Málaga faculty and host families.  I developed and initiated the Program at SU, in conjunction with my colleagues at the Universidad de Málaga, and I served as on-site director through 2004.  The Program is offered each summer.  The Program course counts toward both the SU Spanish minor and major.  This course also fulfills the study abroad requirement for SU Spanish majors.  All work done in Spanish.  Prerequisite: Spanish 202: Spanish in Review.  (NOTE: This program became part of the overall Salisbury Abroad: Spain summer/semester/year program in 2011.) 

Spanish 315: Spanish Culture and Civilization.  A cultural history of Spain, from earliest times to present day. This course examines the mix of politics, religion, armed conflicts, artistic expression and custom that together have shaped/reflected the evolving identity of Spain. Taught in Spanish.  Pre- or co-requisite: Spanish 310: Oral and Written Composition. 

Spanish 330: Hispanic Literature in Translation.  Traditionally a course in which students read, discuss, and write about a number of classic works of Spanish and Spanish American literatures, the past several times I have taught this course the focus has been solely on on Don Quixote, and the course has been cross-listed with its equivalent seminar in SU's Honors Program.  Taught in English.  Prerequisite: English 103: Composition and Research.  

Spanish 335: Survey of Spanish Literature.  A study of the evolution of the literary expression of Spain.  This course provides students with the opportunity to read, analyze, discuss, and write about representative writers from each literary movement and genre.  Taught in Spanish.  Pre- or co-requisite: Spanish 310: Oral and Written Composition.  

Spanish 403: Hispanic Culture Through Literature.  After addressing the question, "What is culture?", this course examines many of the major cultural themes from the Spanish-speaking world via the study of literary works that illustrate and otherwise address these themes.  Works studied range from selections from Octavio's Paz's El laberinto de la soledad and the social poetry of Pablo Neruda to Gabriel García Márquez's Cien años de soledad (in its entirety).  Comparisons/contrasts between Hispanic culture and "traditional" U.S. culture also forms part of the course.  Taught in Spanish.  Prerequisites: Spanish 315: Culture and Civilization of Spanish or Spanish 316: Culture and Civilization of Latin America, and Spanish 335: Survey of Spanish Literature or Spanish 336: Survey of Latin American Literature.  

Courses I Have Frequently Taught in the Bellavance Honors Program

Don Quixote (in English)

The Novel of the Latin American "Boom" (in English)

Site last updated: August 27, 2012.