15
ROBERTO IGNACIO DIAZ
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California 90089-0358
213-740-1271;
ACADEMIC DEGREES
Harvard University, A.M. 1984, Ph.D. 1991.
Romance Languages and Literatures.
Georgetown University, B.S. Magna Cum Laude 1982.
Major: Russian. Minor: Arabic.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Del Amo Grant, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, for research in Spain, 2013.
Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching, Center for Excellence in Teaching, University of Southern California, 2010.
Provost’s Grant, Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Southern California, for research in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Germany and Peru, 2008-09.
Residency at the Bellagio Study Center, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy, February 2008.
General Education Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Southern California, 2000.
Hewlett Foundation Award for General Education Course Development, University of Southern California, 1997.
Zumberge Faculty Research and Innovation Fund, University of Southern California, 1995-96.
Roger G. Schmutz Grant, Bates College, for research at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, Summer 1993.
Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities, Harvard University, 1988-89.
Summer Travel Grant, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, for research in Argentina, Summer 1988.
Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard-Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, 1986.
Full Scholarship, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University, 1982-84.
Class Marshal, School of Languages and Linguistics, Georgetown University, 1982.
Dobro Slovo, National Slavic Honors Society, 1981.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Southern California, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Department of Comparative Literature, 1994-99; Associate Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, 1999-
University of California, Los Angeles, Visiting Associate Professor of Spanish, Spring 2001.
Bates College, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Classical and Romance Languages and Literatures, 1992-94.
Phillips Exeter Academy, Instructor in Spanish and French, Department of Modern Languages, 1991-92.
Colby College, Visiting Instructor in Spanish, Department of Modern Foreign Languages, 1990-91.
Harvard University, Teaching Fellow, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, 1984-87; Tutor, Committee on Degrees in Literature, 1985-87.
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE
Associate Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Southern California, Fall 2016.
Co-Director, Madrid Summer Program, University of Southern California, Summers
2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017.
Co-Director, Summer Course in Hong Kong and Macau, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Southern California, 2013.
Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Southern California,
2002-2007; 2010-12.
Co-Director, Buenos Aires Summer Program, University of Southern California, Summer 2008.
SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
Book in Progress
“Latin America and the Transports of Opera: Fragments of a Transatlantic Discourse, 1701-2016”
Book:
Unhomely Rooms: Foreign Tongues and Spanish American Literature. Lewisburg and London: Bucknell University Press, 2002.
Reviews: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 81.1 (2004): 424-25. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 81.1 (2004): 133-34. Choice (Feb. 2003). Ciberletras www.lehman.edu/ciberletras/v11/decastro.html. Latin American Research Review 29.3 (2004): 233-36. Modern Language Review 99.1 (2004): 233.
Articles:
“Underground in Buenos Aires: A Chamber Opera at the Teatro Colón,” forthcoming in Operatic Geographies. Ed. Suzanne Aspden. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
"Lohengrin’s Transports: European Opera and Spanish American Modernism," forthcoming in Verdi, Wagner e contemporâneos. Ed. Maria Alice Volpe. Rio de Janeiro: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
“Lessons of the Baroque in Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s Tres tristes tigres.” Approaches to Teaching the Latin American Boom. Eds. Lucille Kerr and Alejandro Herrero-Olaizola. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2015. 96-106.
“Daniel Catán’s Butterflies; or, The Opera House in the Jungle.” Opera, Exoticism and Visual Culture. Eds. Hyunseon Lee and Naomi Segal. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2015. 31-52.
“Hudson, la Patagonia y la nada.” Entre Borges y Conrad: Estética y territorio en W.H. Hudson. Ed. Leila Gómez and Sara Castro-Klarén. Madrid: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2012. 81-105.
“Mercedes Merlin y Maria Malibran: la ópera, el Atlántico y el cosmopolitismo.”
Voyageurs français dans les Amériques. Ed. Ernesto Mächler Tobar. Paris:
Indigo / Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 2012. 161-74.
“Transatlantic Deficits; or, Alberto Vilar at the Royal Opera House.” Ed. Eleni Kefala.
Negotiating Difference in the Hispanic World: From Conquest to Globalisation.
Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell / Bulletin of Latin American Studies Book Series, 2011. 128-40.
“Apariciones de Mercedes Merlin.” Cien años después: La literatura de mujeres en
América Latina. Ed. Claire Emilie Martin. Lima: Editorial de la Universidad
San Martín de Porres, 2010. 21-32.
“The Spirit of Cuba and the Ghost of Opera.” Symposium 61.1 (Spring 2007): 57-
74. Spanish translation: “El espíritu de Cuba y el espectro de la ópera.”
Revista Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana (Madrid) 53-54 (Verano y Otoño
2009): 163-72.
“Mercedes Merlin, la ópera y Reinaldo Arenas.” Fronteras de la literatura y de la
crítica: Actas del XXXV Congreso Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana.
Ed. Fernando Moreno et al. Poitiers: Centre de Recherches Latino-
Américaines – Archivos, 2006. Formato DVD; sección Artículos; Díaz, Roberto
Ignacio.
“Silencios de Caruso o la ópera en La Habana.” América: Cahiers du CRICCAL
(Sorbonne Nouvelle) 31 (2004): 153-59.
“Nuevas muertes en Venecia: Inversiones de Julio Cortázar y Àlex Susanna.” Mester XXXI (2002): 1-16.
“Epílogo del extranjero: Chile en las antípodas de la ficción latinoamericana.” Albricia: La novela chilena del fin de siglo. Ed. Verónica Cortínez. Santiago de Chile: Cuarto Propio, 2000. 287-304.
“La vuelta al mundo de Borges y Kodama.” Crisis, apocalipsis y utopías: Fines de siglo en la literatura hispanoamericana. Ed. Rodrigo Cánovas and Roberto Hozven. Santiago de Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 2000. 243-47.
“Borges en 'Guayaquil': Las cosas de la historia.” Revista Hispánica Moderna (Columbia University) L (Diciembre 1997): 315-26.
“Wallace Stevens y el discurso en La Habana: Palabras de José Rodríguez Feo.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos XXII.1 (Otoño 1997): 3-18.
“Paratextual Snow; or, The Threshold of Mercedes Merlin.” The Colby Quarterly 32.4 (1996): 236-53.
“Persona non grata: ¿Un latinoamericano en La Habana?” (with Verónica Cortínez). La Torre (Universidad de Puerto Rico), Nueva Época, Año 8, 30 (Abril-Junio 1994): 217-26.
“Merlin's Foreign House: The Genres of La Havane.” Cuban Studies XXIV (1994): 57-82.
Encyclopedia entries
“Caribbean,” in The Encyclopedia of the Novel. Ed. Peter Melville Logan. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Entries on Delmira Agustini, Isabel Allende, Mario Benedetti, Silvina Bullrich, Tomás Carrasquilla, Jorge Díaz, Salvador Garmendia, Juan Gelman, the Comtesse Merlin, Victoria Ocampo, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Gonzalo Rojas. Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. Ed. Bruce Murphy. 4th edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 15, 26, 94, 149, 172, 271, 387, 391, 675-76, 744, 792-93, 880.
Interviews and reviews
Review of Julián Marías, The Infatuations. San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2013.
Review of Mario Vargas Llosa, The Dream of the Celt. San Francisco Chronicle, July 25, 2012.
Review of Andrés Neuman, Traveler of the Century. San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 2102.
Review of José Saramago, Cain. San Francisco Chronicle, October 16, 2011.
Review of Paulo Coelho, Aleph. San Francisco Chronicle. October 2, 2011.
Review of Juan Gabriel Vázquez, The Secret History of Costaguana. San Francisco Chronicle, July 3, 2011.
Review of Christopher L. Miller, The French Atlantic Triangle: Literature and Culture of the Slave Trade. PRL: Primera Revista Latinoamericana de Libros 1.6 (Octubre-Noviembre 2008): 5-7.
Review of Christina Civantos, Between Argentines and Arabs: Argentine Orientalism,
Arab Immigrants, and the Writing of Identity, Latin American Literary Review. *
Review of Julio Rodríguez-Luis, ed., Re-Reading José Martí (1853-1895): One Hundred Years Later, Latin American Literary Review. *
Review of Verónica Cortínez, Cine a la chilena: Las peripecias de Sergio Castilla. Taller de Letras 29 (2001): 261-63.
Review of Adriana Méndez Rodenas, Gender and Nationalism in Colonial Cuba: The Travels of Santa Cruz y Montalvo, Condesa de Merlin. MLN 114.2 (March 1999): 438-41.
Review of Amaryll Chanady, ed., Latin American Identity and Constructions of Difference. Latin American Literary Review XXIII (July-December 1995): 101-05.
“Entrevista con Jorge Edwards” (with Erik Camayd-Freixas and Verónica Cortínez), Plaza 9-10 (1986): 5-19.
LECTURES
Papers:
“Opera and the Drive of the Future,” Eighth Annual Symposium of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP), University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, September 5, 2016.
"A Libretto for Victoria Ocampo: Beatriz Sarlo and Operatic Modernity," Seminar on Opera and Literature, American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 20, 2016.
"An Opera of One’s Own: Victoria Ocampo and Beatriz Sarlo," Invited Lecture, Center for Southern Cone Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, March 4, 2016.
"The Boom and Opera," Special Session on Legacies of the Boom: Recollections and Reconfigurations, Modern Language Association Convention, Austin, Texas, January 8, 2016.
"A Tango in London: Thomas Adès’ Transports," Invited Paper, Symposium on Traditional Music and the Concert Hall, Departments of Comparative Litearture and Musicology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, May 7, 2014.
"Lohengrin’s Transports: European Opera and Spanish American Modernism," Invited Lecture, IV Simpósio Internacional de Musicologia da UFRJ, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15, 2013.
"The Voices of Vivaldi’s Montezuma," VI Congresso della Società Italiana delle Storiche, Università degli Studi di Padova, Padua, Italy, February 15, 2013.
"Life in Venice: The Arts of Revival in Alejo Carpentier’s Concierto barroco," Invited Lecture, Distinguished Scholar Lecture, Department of World Languages and Literature, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, Connecticut, March 29, 2012.
"A Slave’s Transports: Caribbean Testimonio and European Opera," Invited Lecture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Latin American Institute Cuba and the Caribbean Working Group, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, May 5, 2011.
"New Worlds of Opera: The Cases of Buenos Aires and Sydney," American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 2, 2011.
"Ultimate Passage: A Cuban Runaway Slave at the Royal Danish Theater," E. Allison Peers Annual Lecture, Second E. Allison Peers Symposium: Performing Luso-Hispanic Identities in a Transatlantic Context, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, October 23, 2010.
"Raptos de Europa: Prácticas de la ópera y cultura literaria en América Latina," Invited Lecture, Segundo Congreso Internacional Artes en Cruce, Departamento de Arte, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, October 5, 2010.
"Borges’s Baroque Barbarians," The Real and the Surreal: Political Patronage and Literary Parentage in Argentina, USC College Commons, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, October 30, 2009.
"Cuba and the Work of Opera," The Measure of a Revolution: Cuba, 1959-2009, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, May 9, 2009.
"Apariciones de Mercedes Merlin," Keynote Speech, Cien Años Después: La Literatura de Mujeres en América Latina: El Legado de Clorinda Matto de Turner y Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, California State University, Long Beach, California, May 1, 2009.
"Daniel Catán’s Butterflies; or, The Opera House in the Jungle," Symposium on Opera, Exoticism and Visual Culture, Institute for Germanic and Romance Studies and Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, London, England, September 27, 2008.
"Transatlantic Deficits; or, Alberto Vilar at the Royal Opera House," Conference on
Europe and Its Others, Institute of European Cultural Identity Studies and
School of Modern Languages, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, July 8, 2007.
"Mercedes Merlin y Maria Malibran: la ópera, el Atlántico y el cosmopolitismo,"
Journées d’études sur les Voyageurs Français dans les Amériques, Centre
d’études hispaniques, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France,
June 6, 2007.
"Eva Perón y la ópera," Conference on Peronismo and the Aesthetics of Power, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, April 20, 2007.
"La sátira, la ópera y la novela: Comunidades de Alejo Carpentier," Dixième Colloque International du Centre de Recherches Interuniversitaires sur les Champs Culturels en Amérique Latine, Institut du Mexique, Paris, France, November 23, 2006.
"The New World Afterlife of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Opera Librettist," Conference on Icons and Iconoclasts: 1603-1714, Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, July 22, 2006.
"Abducting Europe: Havana and the Transports of Opera, 1833-1851," Conference on the Iberian Atlantic, Schools of History and Modern Languages, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, April 22, 2006.
"Opera and the Republic: Sounds of Cuba," Invited Lecture, Seminario del Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad de San Andrés, Victoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 22, 2004.
"Arias y aires de Arenas," Invited Lecture, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Scripps College, Claremont, California, November 11, 2004.
"Merlin y la ópera," XXXV Congreso del Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, Poitiers, France, June 30, 2004.
"The Spirit of Cuba and the Ghost of Opera" (second version), Invited Lecture, Center for Transnational Studies, University of Southampton, Southampton, England, February 16, 2004.
"Lezama Lima and Opera: An Overture," Mid-America Conference of Hispanic Literatures, Boulder, Colorado, October 3, 2003.
"Cherubino's Comrades: Mozart's 'Non più andrai' and the Cuban National Anthem," Fourth Conference of the International Association for Words and Music Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, June 21, 2003.
"Opera and the Sounding of Montezuma," Invited Lecture, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Program in Latin American and Iberian Studies, and Department of Dramatic Art, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, February 12, 2003.
"Borges, Empires, and the Baroque," Invited Paper, Symposium on Jorge Luis Borges: Poet, Fabulist, Essayist, and Translator, UCLA Departments of Comparative Literature and of Spanish and Portuguese and UCLA Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, November 3, 2002.
"Silencios de Caruso o la ópera en La Habana," Huitième Colloque International du Centre de Recherches Interuniversitaires sur les Champs Culturels en Amérique Latine, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris III, Paris, France, October 25, 2002.
"Calderón and Viceregal Opera: Sounding the New World in La púrpura de la rosa," Pacíficas Convivencias: Homenaje a Francisco Márquez Villanueva, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, April 27, 2002.
"The Sound of Opera in Fresa y chocolate," Conference on World Cinema, Miami Film Festival, Miami Beach, Florida, January 29, 2002.
"Vivaldi's Motezuma; or, Baroque Untruths and Postmodern Sequences," Modern Language Association Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, December 29, 2001.
"The Spirit of Cuba and the Ghost of Opera," Invited Lecture, Seminar für Romanische Philologie and Zentrum für Komparatistiche Studien, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany, November 27, 2001.
"The Countess's Throat: Merlin and the Madness of Opera," 54th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, April 19, 2001.