Education
- Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
- M.A., University of Texas at Austin
- B.A., State University of New York at Geneseo
Courses
- Latin American Women Writers
- Southern Cone Spanish Language & Culture
- Topics in Spanish
- Survey of Spanish-American Literature
- Survey of Spanish-American Literature II
- Spanish-American Prose Fiction
- Latin American Literary Essay
- Latin American Cinema
Biography
Nancy LaGreca, Ph.D., graduated cum laude and phi beta kappa from The State University of New York at Geneseo with a B.A. in Spanish and minors in French and Business Administration. She went on to earn the M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish (concentration in Latin American literature and culture) with a doctoral minor in Women and Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining St. Mary’s, she was a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma from 2004-2022. In June 2022, she was thrilled to join the faculty at St. Mary’s University and currently serves as Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
During nearly three decades in the classroom, she has had the privilege of teaching Spanish language and Hispanic literature and culture (of Spain and Latin America) to students in Texas and in Oklahoma, from first-year courses to graduate seminars in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs. LaGreca’s approach to teaching takes students’ interests into account and focuses on teaching interdisciplinary critical thinking through the lens of literature and cultural products such as art and film. Rather than testing in discreet point format (memorizing facts), LaGreca employs best practices of inclusive pedagogy to teach interdisciplinary research and staged writing: teaching students to carry out literary analyses in stages, with peer and instructor feedback at each stage of the paper.
LaGreca’s research and publications uncover how intellectuals of the 19th and early 20th centuries sought to expand definitions of selfhood in the face of strong nationalist discourses of ideal citizenship. An example of this is her book Rewriting Womanhood: Early Feminism, Subjectivity, and the Angel of the House in The Latin American Novel, 1887-1903 (Pennsylvania State UP, 2009), a historical and literary study of the ways that women novelists sought to redefine the feminine by writing intelligent, dynamic early feminist heroines. Her second book, Erotic Mysticism: Subversion and Transcendence in Latin American Modernismo (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) is a philosophical and psychoanalytic study of the subversive political power of mystical discourse in the novels and essays of key modernista writers.
She is a proud resident of downtown San Antonio and in her free time, she enjoys jogging on the Riverwalk or at Brackenridge Park, exploring museums and the arts in San Antonio, and spending time with her daughter Eva.
Publications
Single-Authored Peer-Reviewed Books
Erotic Mysticism: Subversion and Transcendence in Latin American Modernista Prose. University of North Carolina Press; December 2016. 185 pages. ISBN 978-1-4696-3077-9.
Rewriting Womanhood: Early Feminism, Subjectivity, and the Angel of the House in The Latin American Novel, 1887- 1903. Pennsylvania State University Press, March 2009. 209 pages. ISBN 978-0-271-03439-3.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
“Narrativas modernistas: Jorge Miota, Clemente Palma, Aurora Cáceres, Manuel Beingolea Balarezo, Ventura García Calderón y Abraham Valdelomar” Historia de las literaturas en el Perú Volume III. Ed. Raquel Chang-Rodríguez; Ministerio de la Educación de Perú. Spring 2021.
“Women’s Imagined Roles in Nineteenth-Century Mexico: Seclusion in the Midst of Progress and Early Feminist Reactions.” Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ou.edu/apps/doc/SBKLPU487591548/LCO?u=norm94900&sid= LCO.Originally published in Rewriting Womanhood (2009).
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Theories of Non-Theistic Mysticism in Essayistic Prose of Modernismo: Carlos Díaz Dufoo (Mexico 1861-1941) and Manuel Díaz Rodríguez (Venezuela 1871-1927)” Hispanófila 174 (2015); 13-29.
“Decadence as a Progressive Force in Select Prose of Julián del Casal and Amado Nervo” South Central Review 30.2 (2013): 112-135. Kirby Prize for Best Article in the South Central Review.
“Intertextual, Sexual Politics: New Renderings of Illness and Desire in Aurora Cáceres’s La rosa muerta (1914) and Enrique Gómez Carrillo’s Del amor, del dolor y del vicio (1898)” Hispania 95.4 (Dec. 2012): 617-28.
“The Sublime Corpse in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Women’s Journal El Album Cubano de lo Bueno y lo Bello (1860)” Hispania 92.2 (2009): 201-212.
“Erotic Fetishism in the Short Prose of Almas y cerebros (1898) by Enrique Gómez Carrillo (1873-1927).” Ciberletras 16 (2006). 20 pages. Reprinted in Otra vez Gómez Carrillo: Nuevas aproximaciones críticas sobre el autor guatemalteco Ed. Aida Toledo. Ciudad de Guatemala: Tipografía Nacional, 2008. 117-37.
“Literatura y conciencia: El suicidio femenino en el Album Cubano de lo Bueno y lo Bello (1860) y Dos mujeres (1842) de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda.” Revolución y Cultura 4 (2006): 12-16. Reprinted in Tenemos que hablar, tenemos que hacer: Escritura femenina latinoamericana del siglo XIX. Estudios y textos. Ed. Luisa Campuzano and Catherine Vallejo. Havana: Casa de las Américas and Gobierno de España Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores y de Cooperación (AECID), December 2011.
“Feminist Literary Criticism of Latin American Women’s Writing: Context, Approaches, and Analysis of the 1990s and early 2000s.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 40 (2006): 379-403.
“Evil Women and Feminist Sentiment: Baroque Contradictions in María de Zayas’ ‘El prevenido engañado’ and ‘Estragos que causa el vicio.’” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 28.3 (2004): 565-82. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism. Vol. 94. Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale Publishers, 2007. 323-333.