David A. Wacks, Curriculum Vitae
Education
- Ph.D. Hispanic Literatures (UC Berkeley, 2003)
- MA Spanish Literature (Boston College, 1997)
- AB English Literature (Columbia University, 1991)
Professional Employment:
- Professor of Spanish, University of Oregon Dept. Romance Languages (2015-)
- Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Oregon Dept. Romance Languages (2009-2015)
- Assistant Professor of Spanish, University of Oregon Dept. Romance Languages (2003-2009)
Research
Authored Book
- Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World (University of Toronto Press, 2019)
- Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature: Jewish Cultural Production Before and After 1492 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015).
- Winner of the 2015 National Jewish Book Award in Sephardic Culture (Mimi S. Frank Award in memory of Becky Levy).
- Reviewed by David Navarro in eHumanista 33 (2016): 562-565.
- Reviewed by David Torollo in La corónica 44.2 (2016): 153-57.
- Reviewed by Andrew Soria in Hispania 99.3 (2016): 503-504.
- Reviewed by Andrew Bush in Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 18.2 (2017): 215-222.
- Framing Iberia: Maqamat and Frametale Narratives in Medieval Spain. Leiden: Brill, 2007. [Paperback edition 2010]
- Winner of the 2009 La corónica International Book Award for the best monograph published on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.
- Reviewed by Ryan Szpiech in Medieval Review, 5 September 2008.
- Reviewed by Auroria Salvatierra Ossorio in Sefarad 68.1 (2008): 233-36.
- Reviewed by Jonathan Burgoyne in Speculum 83.4 (2008): 1052-53.
Edited Volumes
- 2020- Open Iberia/América: Open Access Teaching Archive of Texts from Iberia and Latin America. General Editor. https://openiberiaamerica.hcommons.org/ (in production).
- The Study of al-Andalus: The Scholarship and Legacy of James T. Monroe (co-edited with Michelle M. Hamilton) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018)
- Special cluster of articles in eHumanista 14 (2010): “Multilingual Medieval Iberia Between the Tongue and the Pen” (co-edited with Antonio Cortijo Ocaña, UC Santa Barbara)
- Wine, Women and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia. (co-edited with Michelle M. Hamilton and Sarah J. Portnoy) (Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2004).
- Reviewed by Daniel Salas Díaz in Dissidences 1.1 (2005)
- Reviewed by Gregory Kaplan in Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84.2 (2007): 256-57.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
- “Aljamiado Retellings of the Hebrew Bible.” Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies 13 (2022): 419–34. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-022-00251-1. Author’s open access postprint version: https://doi.org/10.17613/5vtm-8c09
- “Sepharadim/Conversos and Premodern Global Hispanism.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 20, no. 1–02 (2019): 1–14. Publiisher’s version: https://doi.org/10.1080/14636204.2019.1609243 Author’s open access postprint version: http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/j969-gb57
- “Popular Andalusi literature and Castilian fiction: Ziyad ibn ‘Amir al-Kinani, 101 Nights, and Caballero Zifar.” Revista de Poética Medieval 29 (2015): 311-335. [Open Access postprint version: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19484]
- “Romance, Conversion, and Internal Orientalism in Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor (ca. 1290).” Narrative Culture 2.2: (2015): 270-288. [Open Access postprint version: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/19479]
- “Translation of Texts and of Relics as Symbolic Capital in Caballero Zifar.” La corónica 43.1 (2014): 115-140.
- “Vernacular Anxiety and the Semitic Imaginary: Shem Tov Isaac ibn Ardutiel de Carrión and his Critics” Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 4.2 (2012): 167-84. [Open Access postrprint version]
- “Reconquest Colonialism and Andalusi Narrative Practice in the Conde Lucanor of Don Juan Manuel.” diacritics 36.3-4 (2006): 87-103. [Open Access postprint version]
- “Reading Jaume Roig’s Spill and the Libro de buen amor in the Iberian maqama tradition.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 83.5 (2006): 597-616. [Open Access postprint version]
- “Don Yllán and the Egyptian Sorceror: Vernacular commonality and literary diversity in medieval Castile.” Sefarad 65.2 (2005): 413-433. [Open Access postprint version]
- “The Performativity of Ibn al-Muqaffa’s Kalila wa-Dimna and Al-Maqamat al-luzumiyya of al-Saraqusti.” Journal of Arabic Literature 34 (2003): 178-89. [Open Access postprint version]
Essays in Edited Collections
- “Medieval Iberian Romance.” The New Cambridge Companion to Medieval Romance, edited by Roberta L. Krueger, Cambridge University Press, 2023, pp. 167–79. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108783033.013.
- “Sefarad.” Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Medieval Iberia: Unity in Diversity. Ed. E. Michael Gerli and Ryan Giles. London: Routledge, 2021. 119-34. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:41841
- “Ziyad ibn ‘Amir al-Kinani as Andalusi Muslim Crusade Literature.” The Study of al-Andalus: The Scholarship and Legacy of James T. Monroe. Ed. Michelle M. Hamilton and David A. Wacks. Ilex Foundation: Boston, 2018. 211-228.
- “An Interstitial History of Medieval Iberian poetry.” The Routledge Companion to Iberian Studies. Ed. Javier Muñoz-Basols, Laura Lonsdale, and Manuel Delgado. London: Routledge, 2017. http://bit.ly/2ppuUUa
- “Translation in Diaspora: Sephardic Spanish-Hebrew Translations in the Sixteenth Century.” A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. Ed. César Domínguez & María José Vega. Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2017. 351-63. https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:10227/
- “Reading Amadís in Constantinople: Imperial Spanish fiction in the key of diaspora.” In and of the Mediterranean: Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Studies. Ed. Nuria Silleras Fernández and Michelle Hamilton. Minneapolis: Hispanic Issues, 2015. 183-207.
- “Vidal Benvenist’s Efer ve-Dinah Between Hebrew and Romance.” A Sea of Languages: Literature and Culture in the Pre-modern Mediterranean. Ed. Suzanne Akbari & Karla Mallette. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. 217–231.
- “Conflicted Identity and Colonial Adaptation in Petrus Alfonsi’s Dialogus contra judaeos and Disciplina clericalis.” Marginal Voices: Studies in Converso Literature of Medieval and Renaissance Spain. Ed. Amy I. Aaronson-Friedman and Gregory Kaplan. Leiden: Brill, 2012. 69-90. [Open Access postprint]
- “Toward a History of Hispano-Hebrew Literature in its Romance Context.” eHumanista 14 (2010): 178-209.
- “Is Spain’s Hebrew Literature ‘Spanish?’” Spain’s Multicultural Legacies: Studies in Honor of Samuel G. Armistead. Eds. Adrienne Martin and Cristina Martínez-Carazo. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2008. 315-31. [Open Access postprint version]
- “Between Sacred and Secular: Abraham ibn Ezra and the Song of Songs.” Wine, Women and Song: Hebrew and Arabic Literature in Medieval Iberia. Eds. Michelle H. Hamilton, Sarah J. Portnoy, and David A. Wacks. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2004. 47-58. [Open Access postprint version]
Other Publications
- Foreword, with Michelle M. Hamilton, in James T. Monroe, Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship: 16th Century to the Present [Leiden, Brill 1970]. Boston: ILEX Foundation. Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2021. xiii-lv.
- “A Hortus Conclusus of Andalusi Jewish Studies.” Essay in honor of 2019 La corónica International Book Award winner Sarah Pearce, for The Andalusí Literary Intellectual Tradition: The Role of Arabic in Judah ibn Tibbon’s Ethical Will (Indiana University Press, 2017). La corónica 48, no. 2 (2020): 33–38. http://doi.org/10.1353/cor.2020.0018
- “Whose Spain is it anyway?” Whose Middle Ages?: A Reader.” Ed. Andrew Albin, Mary Erler, Thomas O’Donnell, Nicholas Paul, and Nina Rowe. New York: Fordham University Press, 2019, 181-90. https://www.fordhampress.com/9780823285563/whose-middle-ages/ or http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/c0r3-c507
- “Tirant lo Blanch (Valencia, 1490): A 15th century literary rehearsal for a historical confrontation with the non-Christian world.” Sephardic Horizons 7.1-2.
- “In Memoriam Ángel Sáenz-Badillos.” La corónica. 42.2 (2014): 5-13. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18679
- “Cultural Exchange in the Literatures and Languages of Medieval Iberia.” Sephardic Horizons 4.1 (2014). Web.
- “Ibn Sahula’s Tale of the Egyptian Sorcerer: A Thirteenth-Century Don Yllán.” eHumanista 4 (2004): 1-12.
Teaching Materials
- Lecturas en literatura y lengua premodernas peninsulares. Open Access (OER) Course reader for SPAN 341 Hispanic Culture through Literature I and SPAN 399 Languages of Iberia (taught in Oviedo, Spain) https://tinyurl.com/y2wyb9cm
- Lecturas en literatura y cultura premodernas mediante la polémica. Open Access (OER) Course reader for SPAN 341: Hispanic Culture through Literature I. https://tinyurl.com/y3o5gcys
Book Reviews
- Ross Brann. Iberian Moorings: Al-Andalus, Sefarad, and the Tropes of Exceptionalism. Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. 240 pp. $49.95 ISBN 9780812252880. The Medieval Review, October 23, 2021. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/33468/37019
- Calderwood, Eric. Colonial al-Andalus: Spain and the Making of Modern Moroccan Culture. Cambridge: The Belknap Press at Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 9780674980327. 400pp. Comparative Literature, vol. 72, no. 4, 2020, pp. 460-462.
- Roza Candás, Pablo, ed. Memorial de ida i venida hasta Maka: La peregrinación de ʿOmar Paṭōn. Oviedo, 2018. ISBN 978-84-16343-67-6. 482 pp. Forthcoming in La corónica.
- Ellen D. Haskell, Mystical Resistance: Uncovering the Zohar’s Conversations with Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Speculum, vol. 94, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1167–1168. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/cwmq-r924
- Ryan Szpiech, ed. Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference: Commentary, Conflict, and Community in the Premodern Mediterranean. New York: Fordham University Press, 2015. Journal of Medieval Worlds 1.1 (2015): 125-129. http://jmw.ucpress.edu/content/1/1/125
- Llull, Ramon. Romance of Evast and Blaquerna. Intro. Albert Soler and Joan Santanach. Trans. Robert D. Hughes. Serie B: Textos, 60. Barcelona and Woodbridge UK: Barcino-Tamesis, 2016. 564p. ISBN 978-1-85566-304-6. La corónica 47.1 (2019): 122-24. https://doi.org/10.1353/cor.2018.0022 or http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/0cq6-3b25
- Colbert Cairns, Emily. Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora: Queen of the Conversas. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Boletín de los Comediantes 70.2, 129-131. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/728082 or http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/4xyn-tg27
- Hook, David, ed. The Arthur of the Iberians: The Arthurian Legends in the Spanish and Portuguese Worlds. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2015. Arthuriana 26.4 (2016): 78-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6639F
- Linhard, Tabea. Jewish Spain: A Mediterranean Memory. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2014. Modern Language Notes 131.2 (2016): 558-560. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6ZH68
- Robinson, Cynthia. Imagining the Passion in a Multiconfessional Castile: The Virgin, Christ, Devotions, and Images in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013. Revista Hispánica Moderna 69.1 (2016): 109-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M69T1K
- Hatem, Jad. Sobreamor: Ausiàs March, Ibn Zaydûn, Ibn `Arabî, Ramon Llull. Trans. Elena de la Cruz Vergari. Exemplaria Scholastica: Textos i estudis medievals 5. Santa Coloma de Queralt: Obrador Edèndum, 2011. La corónica. 42.2 (217-19).
- El Corán De Toledo. Ed. Consuelo López-Morillas. Oviedo: Trea, 2011. Calíope 18.3 (2013): 129-131. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6VM4M
- Szpiech, Ryan. Conversion and Narrative: Reading and Religious Authority in Medieval Polemic (Middle Ages Series). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Speculum 88.3 (2013): 853-855. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M62964
- Ingram, Kevin, ed. The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and Beyond. Volume One: Departures and Change. Leiden: Brill, 2009. The Medieval Review (19 May 2010).
- Decter, Jonathan. Iberian Jewish Literature: Between al-Andalus and Christian Europe. Indiana UP, 2007. Calíope 14.1 (2008): 139-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M60988
- Díaz-Mas, Paloma. Sephardim: The Jews from Spain. Ed. and trans. George K. Zucker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Bulletin of the Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies 33.1 (2008): 33-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6XM5M
- Young, Douglas C. Rogues and Genres: Generic Transformation in the Spanish Picaresque and Arabic Maqāma. Newark: Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta, 2004. Aljamía 19 (2007): 529-531. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6ST1X
- Barletta, Vincent. Covert Gestures: Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. Hispania 89.1 (2006): 50-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6GD78
- Mocedades de Rodrigo. Ed. Leonardo Funes, with Felipe Tenenbaum. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Tamesis. 2004. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 83.8 (2006): 982-83. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6BM3K
- Ibn Sahula, Isaac. Meshal Haqadmoni: Fables from the Distant Past. Ed. and Trans. Raphael Loewe. London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2004. La corónica 34.1 (2005): 280-83.
- al-Harīzī, Judah. The Book of Tahkemoni: Jewish Tales From Medieval Spain. Trans. David Simha Segal. London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2001. La corónica 33.1 (2004): 282-85.
- Maravillas, peregrinaciones y utopías: literatura de viajes en el mundo románico. Ed. Rafael Beltrán. Valencia: Universitat de Valencia, 2002. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 53 (2003): 743-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6ZD67
- Menocal, María Rosa. The Ornament of the World. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2002. La Corónica 32.1 (2003): 377-80.
Invited Talks
- “Neutral Zones in Medieval Iberian literature: Secularization of Hebrew and the creation of a learned vernacular.” Workshop: Beyond Secularity – Neutral Zones and How to Find them in Premodern Sources. Centre for Advanced Studies “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities,” Leipzig University (May 11-12, 2023).
- Presentation of Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction (University of Toronto Press, 2019) to the Early Modern Mediterranean Workshop, University of Chicago (May 02, 2022 online due to COVID).
- “Entangled Jewish and Christian Retellings of the Hebrew Bible in Medieval Spain.” Anne Tannenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto (Oct 04, 2021 online due to COVID).
- “From Convivencia to Entanglement: interpreting Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Retellings of the Hebrew Bible in Medieval Iberia.” Euro-Mediterranean Entanglements in Medieval History. Online Seminars Organised by the German Historical Institutes of Paris and Rome (Sep 28, 2021)
- “Medieval Iberian retellings of Adam and Eve’s Fall.” Mediterranean Seminar, UC Boulder (October 2020, online) https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2020/03/12/adam/
- “Medieval Iberian Jewish Romance.” Jewish Medieval Romance. Yale University Institute of Sacred Music (Oct 26, 2020, online)
- “The Other Averroism: The Copenhagen Maimonides and the Maimonidean Controversy.” Shared Moveable Worlds. Centre for Medieval Literature. Royal Copenhagen Library. Copenhagen, May 27-29. 2019.
- “New Language, New Story: How Translation Changed the Bible for Sephardic Jews Across History.” Stroum Center for Jewish Studies, University of Washington. Seattle, WA, Mar 4, 2019.
- “Literature of the Sephardic Mediterranean.” Visiting Faculty Presentation, NEH Seminar “Thresholds of Change: Modernity and Transformation in the Mediterranean, 1400-1700.” Hill Museum and Library, Collegeville, MN, June 25-26, 2018.
- “Iberian Fictions of Crusade ca. 1300: The clerical chivalric imaginary in The Book of the Knight Zifar and Ramon Llull’s Blaquerna.” Center for Medieval Studies, University of Minnesota, September 16, 2017.
- “Toward a Theory of Medieval Iberian Narrative: Transcultural Perspectives.” Department of Romance Languages, University of Bonn, June 15, 2017.
- “La doble diáspora sefardí: entre Sión y Sefarad.” Fundación Tres Culturas, Seville, Spain, October 27, 2016
- “Jewish Exegesis, Vernacular Bible, and the Rise of Fiction: Alfonso X’s General Estoria (ca. 1280).” Theorizing Medieval Literature Conference, Centre for Medieval Literature, University of York (UK), July 2, 2016.
- “Two Reactions to the Expulsion from Spain: Solomon ibn Verga and Joseph Karo.” Cultures of the Sephardic Diaspora. Portland State University, 9 October, 2015.
- “Crypto-Judaism and the Question of Human Agency in Sixteenth-Century Jewish Thought.”Fourth Annual Martin Sosin Address to Advance Scholarship about the Crypto-Judaic Arts, Society for Crypto-Judaic Studies, Miami, 20 July, 2015.
- “Crusade, Conquest, and Conversion in the Medieval Iberian Romance (1250-1550)” Medieval Studies, Yale University, 23 April 2015.
- “La literatura Andalusí popular y la ficción castellana.” Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University, 24 April 2015.
- “El Libro del Cavallero Zífar: Arabic Sources or Arabic as source of legitimacy?” Tales That Travel. NYU Abu Dhabi. 25 Feb 2014.
- “Translation of Remains and Translation of Texts: Symbolic Capital in Caballero Zifar.” Translation and Mediterranean Culture. UC Berkeley, Department of Spanish and Portuguese. 15 November 2013.
- “Opening Hispanic and Lusophone Studies: Digital Humanities, Social Media, and Open Access.” NYU Department of Spanish and Portuguese. New York City. 29 October 2013.
- “Cultural Exchange in the Literatures and Languages of medieval Iberia.” NYU Abu Dhabi Institute . New York City. 29 October 2013.
- “Chivalric Romance in the Key of Diaspora: Jacob ben Elazar’s ‘Sahar and Kima’ (13th c.) and Jacob Algaba’s Hebrew Amadís de Gaula (16th c.)” Centre for Medieval Literature, Southern Denmark Unviersity. 13 June 2013.
- “Romance, Diaspora style: Jacob ben Elazar (13th c.) between the chivalric and the courtly.” Department of Romance Languages and Literaures, Notre Dame University. 4 February 2013.
- “Translation in Diaspora: Sephardic Spanish-Hebrew Translation in the Sixteenth Century.” Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Colorado University at Boulder. 1 November 2012. [blog post]
- “Two Reactions to the 1492 Expulsion from Spain: Historiography and Kabbalah.” Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, University of British Columbia. 24 October 2012. [poster]
- “Reading Amadís in Constantinople: the Sephardic as imperial abject.” 2011 UC Mediterranean Research Project Seminar: “Mediterranean Empires.” 29 October 2011. [blog post]
- “Ethnic Polemic in Medieval Spain: ‘Arabiyya, Shu’ubiyya, and ‘Ibraniyya.” Islamic Studies Institute, Stanford University. 13 October 2011. [blog post] [iTunes audio]
- “Sephardic literature in the key of Diaspora.” Department of Romance Studies, Cornell University. 15 September 2011.
- “Hebrew Bible: Intertextuality in Spanish-Hebrew Literature.” Scriptures in Medieval Iberia. Iona Pacific Inter-religious Centre, Vancouver School of Theology. 6 June, 2011. [slides + text]
- “Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature 1200-1600.” Work in Progress Talk, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon. 8 April 2011. [mp3][slidecast = slides + audio]
- “The Danger of Purity: Jacob ben Elazar’s Love Stories Between Hispanism and Hebraism.” Purity and Danger Workshop on Medieval Iberian Studies. Princeton University, 2010 (invited). [mp3]
- “Biblical and Vernacular Narrativity in Vidal Benvenist’s Efer ve-Dina.” Hebrew Literature, the Bible and the Andalusi Tradition in the Fifteenth Century. Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica (CSIC). Madrid, Spain, 2009 (invited). [abstract]
- “Sephardic Culture and Hispanic Studies.” Diaspora and Return: Sephardic Jews beyond Spain. University of California at Irvine, 2008.
- “Is Spain’s Hebrew Literature ‘Spanish’?” Spain’s Multicultural Legacies. University of California at Davis, 2007..
- “The Study of Medieval Hispano-Hebrew Literature in Modern Spain.” 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2007.
- “Efer ve-Dinah, a Hispano-hebrew novella.” The Persistence of Philology: Rethinking Comparative Literary History on the Twentieth Anniversary of María Rosa Menocal’s The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History. University of Toronto, 2007.
- “The converso question in Jaume Roig’s Spill.” Medieval Studies symposium on conversion. University of California at Santa Barbara, 2007.
- “The Near-total Eclipse of Hebrew in Medieval Spanish Literary Studies.” State University of New York at New Paltz, 2006.
Conference Papers
- 2023 “An Asturian Culture Course for Study Abroad in Asturias.” Society for the Analysis of Cultural Topics and Linguistic Identities N’Asturies” (SanTINA). Oklahoma State University (Virtual) (May 3-4).
- “Crypto-Readings of the Hebrew Bible in Medieval Iberia.” 57th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, Michigan (May 12, 2022).
- “Talking at Cross Purposes: Polemical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible in Medieval Iberia.” 97th Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (Mar 10-13, 2022). https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2022/03/08/fighting/
- “Shared Storyworlds in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Retellings of the Hebrew Bible in Medieval Iberia.” Panel on New Currents in Medieval Iberian Studies. 137th Annual Modern Language Association Convention, Washington DC (Jan 8, 2022, online due to COVID-19). https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2022/01/04/storyworld/
- “An Online, Open-Access Teaching Anthology of Premodern Iberian and Latin American Texts.” 136th Annual Modern Language Association Convention (Jan 2021, online due to COVID-19). https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2020/12/30/open-iberia/
- “The Origins of a Theory of Race in Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Retellings of the Noah Story.” 136th Annual Modern Language Association Convention (Jan 2021, online due to COVID-19). https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2020/12/30/ham/
- “Medieval Iberian Retellings of the Abraham story.” Medieval Academy of America, UC Berkeley (March 27, 2020).
- “The Pagan Resistance.” 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, Michigan. May 12, 2018.
- “Narrative Insecurity: A Muslim Crusader in Thirteenth-century Granada” and “Fairies and Pagan Mythologies in the romancero.” 133rd Annual Modern Language Association Convention. New York, 5-7 January 2018.
- “Jewish Sources in Alfonso X’s General estoria, II.” Cultural “Symbiosis” International Research Consortium: Humanities, Ideas, and Power in Motion. University of Seville, 16 May (via teleconference).
- “How Christian was Iberia in the Middle Ages? And how can you tell?” Mediterranean Studies Round Table. CSU Fresno, 9 April, 2016.
- “The Cantar de los Cantares in the General Estoria. A product of intellectual collaboration between Jewish and Christian scholars?” Historians of Medieval Iberia: Enemies and Friends. Centre for Medieval Studies, Stockholm University (via teleconference), 15 March, 2016.
- “The Cantar de cantares in the General estoria between Jewish and Christian exegesis.” Texas Medieval Association. Texas State University at San Marcos (via teleconference), 17 October 2015.
- “Ziyad ibn Amir al-Kinani, an Andalusi Romance of Chivalry.” 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Western Michigan University. Kalmazoo, 15 May 2015.
- “Fiction, History, and the stuggle for the Mediterranean in Tirant lo Blanch (Valencia, 1490).” Medieval Association of the Pacific. Reno, 10 April 2015.
- “A Theory of Ibero-Mediterranean Romance.” 130th Annual Modern Language Association Convention. Vancouver, BC, 8 January 2015.
- “Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor: Romancing Alfonso X’s Umayyad Legacy.” Pacific North West Renaissance Society. University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Kelowna, 18 October 2014.
- “Romance, Conversion, and Internal Orientalism in Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor.” Medieval Association of the Pacific/Medieval Academy of America. Los Angeles, 10 April 2014.
- “Crusader Fiction for Muslim Readers: The aljamiado manuscript of the Historia de los amores de Paris y Viana (ca. 1560).” UC Mediterranean Seminar Winter Symposium. San Francisco State University, 7 March 2014.
- “The task of the Trasladador: Zifar as translation allegory.” 129th Annual Modern Language Association Convention. Chicago, 12 January 2014.
- “El Libro del Cavallero Zífar: Performing ‘Spanishness’ in the Mediterranean Context.” 2013 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention. Vancouver, WA. 11 October 2013.
- “Reading Amadís in Constantinople: Translation as Diasporic Cultural Production.” 127th Annual Modern Language Association Convention. Seattle, 2012. [slides] [blog post]
- “Recycling the Troubadours in Hebrew: Todros Abulafia at the Court of Alfonso X” Mid-America Medieval Association (MAMA), Annual Conference XXV. Kansas City, 2011. [abstract][text][slidecast = slides + audio]
- “The Sephardic Postcolonial.” 44th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2009. [abstract]
- “Canonicity and Medieval Hispanic Studies.” 124th Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, 2008.
- “Emergent Castilian Vernacular and Hebrew Writing in Shem Tov de Carrión.” 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2008. [abstract]
- “Restoring Hebrew to the Medieval Spanish Canon.” Intermediaries: Translating Cultures in Medieval and Early Modern Hispanic World. King’s College, London, 2006.
- “Colonial Contradiction and Andalusi Narrative Practice in the Conde Lucanor.” 121st Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association 2005.
- “Theorizing Hybridity in Medieval Iberian Literature.” 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2005.
- “Mr. Fox Goes to Paris, or Petrus Alfonsi’s Animal Ambassadors of the Andalusi Intellect.” 120th Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, 2004.
- “The Fruits of Convivencia: Casual Collaboration Between Jewish Readers and Christian Writers in Medieval Iberia.” 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, 2004.
- “Don Yllán’s Hebrew Predecessor: Ibn Sahula’s Egyptian Mage.” 39th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2004.
- “La sentencia de lo que y dize: The Unreliable Narrator and Rationalist Philosophy in Medieval Iberian Fiction.” Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish Literature: Three Golden Ages in the Iberian Peninsula. A Symposium-Seminar in Memory of Americo Castro (1885-1972). University of California at Berkeley, 2003.
- “Glossing the Other: Representing the Language of the Minority in the Romance jarchas and the Andalusī Anecdotes of Juan Manuel.” 118th Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, 2002.
- “Convivencia in the Teaching of Medieval Iberian Literature.” 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, 2001.
Seminars and General Interest Talks
- “Adam and Eve and the Serpent in the Arragel Bible.” SPAN 330A, University of Portland. March 21, 2023.
- “Adam and Eve in Medieval Spain.” Osher Center for Lifelong Learning, Eugene, Oregon. Feb. 21, 2021.
- “Judíos en la peninsula ibérica: un panorama.” Marginalization in the Middle Ages series. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú (online). Nov. 17, 2020.
- “La Península Ibérica en Edad Media.” Lexington High School (Lexington, MA) (online due to COVID-19), June 2020.
“Jewish, Muslim, and Christian retellings of Adam and Eve in Medieval Iberia.” Romance Languages Seminar. University of Oregon. Jan 24, 2020. - “Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction.” Oregon Humanities Center. University of Oregon. Jun 8, 2018.
- “Spain’s Semitic Legacy: Medieval Poetry and Modern Nationalism.” Dissonant Perspectives: Old Music in a Time of Political Upheaval Symposium. University of Oregon Freedom of Expression Series. May 30, 2018.
- “Spanish Crusade Fiction.” Texas Tech University, Seville Study Abroad Center. March 23, 2017.
- “Cruzada y misión en Blaquerna por Ramon Llull.” Observatorio de Religiones Comparadas. Departamento de Filologías Integradas. University of Seville. March 1, 2017. https://davidwacks.uoregon.edu/2017/03/01/blaquerna/
- “Cultura sefardita en al-Andalus.” Departamento de Historia. University of Huelva. November 2016.
- “Crypto-Judaism and the Question of Human Agency in Sixteenth-Century Sephardic Thought.” Sephardic Culture Lecture Series. University of Oregon. Apr 28, 2016.
- Book in Print talk, Oregon Humanities Center, Feb 5, 2016.
- “The Confluence of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in Medieval Spain.” University of Oregon Osher Center for Lifelong Learning, Apr 1, 2015.
- “Mythology of Northern Spain.” UO Osher Center for Lifelong Learning. 10 Dec 2014.
- “Christians, Muslims and Jews in Medieval Spain: The Literary Evidence.” 3rd Annual Rabbi Marcus Simmons Lecture. Temple Beth Israel. Eugene, Oregon, 4 Feb 2014.
- “Opening Hispanic and Lusophone Studies: Digital Humanities, Social Media, and Open Access.” NYU Department of Spanish and Portuguese. New York City. 28 Oct 2013.
- “María Rosa Menocal’s Ornament of the World, courtly poetry, and modern Nationalism.” Guest Lecture at NYU in MAP-UA 500: Cultures & Contexts: Islam and Judaism: Intertwined Histories (Prof. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite)
- “Opening the Humanities with Social Media.” U Oregon Open Access Week 2011. Knight Library, 26 Oct 2011.
- “El Moro Ricote and the Literature of the Morisco Diaspora.” University of Portland, 2010 (via web) [stream screencast][download screencast]
- “Five Hundred Years of Ladino Literature.” Temple Beth Israel, Eugene Oregon, 2010. [slidecast]
- “Ibn Verga’s Shevet Yehudah and the Sephardic Diaspora.” University of Portland, 2009.
Guest Blog entries
Fellowships, Grants, and Awards
- Presidential Fellowship for the Humanties and Creative Arts, University of Oregon, 2019.
- Ernst G. Moll Fellowship in Literary Studies, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, 2018.
- Faculty Research Award, University of Oregon, 2018.
- Summer Humanities and Creative Arts Stipend, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon, 2018.
- Brown Family Faculty Fellowship, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon, 2013-2016.
- National Jewish Book Award in category of Sephardic Culture (Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of Becky Levy)
- Summer Research Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon, 2010.
- Ernest G. Moll Fellowship in Literary Studies, Oregon Humanities Center, University of Oregon, 2010.
- La corónica Book Award for the best monograph published on Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, 2009.
- Norman H. Brown Faculty Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2007 (renewed 2008 and 2009).
- Harry Starr Fellowship in Judaica, Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies, 2006.
- Oregon Humanities Center Faculty Research Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2005.
- Summer Research Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon, 2005.
- Junior Faculty Development Grant, University of Oregon (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008).
- New Faculty Summer Research Grant, University of Oregon, 2004.
- Graduate Research Fellowship, Berkeley Language Center, 2002.
- Dissertation Year Fellowship, UC Berkeley Dept. Spanish & Portuguese, 2002.