Ruth K. Crispin, PhD
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Ruth K. Crispin, PhD Professor of Spanish |
Dr. Crispin teaches classes in both Spanish language and Spanish literature as well as Intellectual Heritage: Belief and Thought, which she has taught since its inception in 1992. In addition to her courses in intermediate Spanish language and general Spanish and Latin American literature, she has created two literature-in-translation courses: "Don Quijote and other Spanish Anti-Heroes" and "Spain through Art, Literature and Film", as well as the chamber reading class "Playreading in Spanish". She also works with Spanish minors on a wide variety of topics.
Her books include Progress in Spanish: Grammar and Conversation for the Second Year (first author), 1st edition, 1971; revised edition, 1982; Song of the Self: The Poetry of Pedro Salinas, 2001, and Memory in My Hands: The Love Poetry of Pedro Salinas (translated and with an introduction), 2009. Reviews of her books can be found under both Katz Crispin and Crispin.
Her published articles include a critical examination of Salinas’ letters to his American muse and analyses of twentieth-century Latin American novels and poetry in addition to the areas already mentioned. She has read presentations at university conferences in Madrid, Salamanca and San Sebastián (Spain), Xalapa (Mexico) and Río de Janeiro (Brazil) as well as across the United States.
Dr. Crispin has been the recipient of three National Endowment of the Humanities summer fellowships and a panelist for the awarding of similar NEH grants.
Research Interests
Dr. Crispin’s main area of interest and expertise is Spanish literature. She has published extensively on the twentieth-century Spanish poet, Pedro Salinas, and is currently concentrating principally on literary translation, both of poetry and of prose. Her recently completed translations include Salinas’ love trilogy and the nineteenth-century novel "Meow", by Benito Pérez Galdós, Spain’s leading realist author. Other research interests include Spanish and English poetry of the seventeenth century (comparative study), Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as applied to poetry, and English Romantic poetry.
Recent Publications
Books
Memory in My Hands: The Love Poetry of Pedro Salinas (translated and with an introduction). New York: Peter Lang, 2009.
Song of the Self: The Poetry of Pedro Salinas. Fife, Scotland, UK: La Serena Press, 2002.
Articles
"La voz a ti debida and the Poetics of Translation", in Studies in Honor of Denah Lida, Potomac, Md: Scripta Humanistica, 2005.
"Torpe fue mi amor, pero ¡qué clara mi visión de ti!": Conclusiones preliminares sobre las cartas de Pedro Salinas a Katherine Whitmore": Actas, Santander, Spain, April 23-25, 2001.
" ‘¡Qué verdad revelada! The Poet and the Absent Beloved in La voz a ti debida, Razón de amor and Largo lamento" in Revista Hispánica Moderna, LIV, Hispanic Institute of Columbia University, June, 2001.
Recent Conference Papers
"Love Poetry and Translation: The Case of Pedro Salinas". American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, national convention, Salamanca, Spain, summer, 2006.
"Blurred Boundaries: The Muse and the Lover of La voz a ti debida". Kentucky Language Conference, Lexington, Kentucky, April, 2003.
"Blurred Boundaries: The Muse and the Lover of La voz a ti debida". American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, national convention, Río de Janeiro, Brazil, July, 2002.
"Torpe fue mi amor, pero qué clara mi visión de ti!: Conclusiones preliminares sobre las cartas de Pedro Salinas a Katherine Whitmore": Santander, Spain, April 23-25, 2001.
"The Poet and the Absent Beloved in Pedro Salinas’ Love Trilogy": Twentieth-Century Literature Conference, University of Louisville (Kentucky), February, 2000 and also at the Romance Languages and Literatures Conference, University of Cincinnati (Ohio), May, 2000.
Professional Affiliations
American Literary Translators’ Association
Modern Language Association
Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
American Association of Comparative Literature
Beta Mu, National Library Science Honor Society, elected, 1976