Director of Undergraduate Studies/Undergraduate Advisor in Romance Studies

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and
of Comparative Literature

• Office:   Dana Palmer House 104 and Boylston Hall G-23
• Phone:  (617) 495-2567
• Fax:      (617) 496-4682
• Email:   giron@fas.harvard.edu
• Office Hours:  Thursdays 3-5
  

Academic Degrees: A.B., Mathematics and Philosophy, Harvard University; M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School; A.M. and Ph.D., Religion and Literature, Harvard University

Research Interests: Medieval and Golden Age Spanish Literature; Medieval, Arabic, Latin and Hebrew Literatures; History of Religions; Comparative Literature

Major Publications:

Las Coplas de Yosef: Entre la Biblia y el Midrash en la poesía judeoespañola. (with Laura Minervini). Madrid: Gredos, 2006.

Selected Recent Articles:

"Huellas hebraicas en la poesía del Marqués de Santillana." In Encuentros and Desencuentros: Spanish Jewish Cultural Interactions. Carlos Carrete Parrondo et al (eds). Tel Aviv: University Publishing Projects, 2000. pp. 161-211.

"La maldición del can: la polémica antijudía en el Libro del caballero Zifar." Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool), 78.3 (2001): 275-295.

"Tassels or Skirts? Some Notes on a Lexicographic Gloss in the General estoria.." Romance Philology, 54 (2001): 331-350.

" 'Commo a cuerpo santo': el prólogo del Zifar y los furta sacra hispano-latinos." Bulletin Hispanique, 102.2 (2001): 345-368.

" 'Your dove-eyes among your hairlocks': Language and Authority in Fray Luis de León's Respuesta que desde su prisión da a sus émulos." Renaissance Quarterly Studies, 54.4 (2001): 1197-1250.

"El canto del ave: música y éxtasis en la Cantiga de Santa María 103." In Literatura y espiritualidad. María Pilar Manero (ed). Barcelona, 2003: 35-59.

"El laberinto y sus reveses en Juan de Mena." Medioevo Romanzo 28 (2004): 129-166.

"How the Go-Between Cut Her Nose: Two Ibero-Medieval Translations of a Kalilah wa-Dimnah Story." In Under the Influence. Leyla Rouhi and Cynthia Robinson (eds). Leiden: Brill, 2005, pp. 231-259.

Current Projects:

"The Hawk Is Not Worth Less": Jews and Judaism in Medieval Castilian Literature. A book-length monograph on Jewish characters, authors and influences in medieval Spanish literature through the 15th century. "Pio latrocinio": traslaciones de santos en la España medieval. A study and anthology of medieval Hispano-Latin narratives on the translation of saints and the theft of relics.

Courses Offered in 2012-2013:

Comparative Literature 252. The Literatures of Medieval Iberia: Approaches and Debates in their Comparative Study [spring term]

*Romance Studies 91r. Supervised Reading and Research [fall and spring terms]

*Romance Studies 98. Tutorial—Junior Year [fall and spring terms]

*Romance Studies 99. Tutorial–Senior Year [year term]

Spanish 201. Historia de la lengua española [fall term]

Other Courses Taught:

[Comparative Literature 210. Comparative Themes in the Literatures of Medieval Spain: Seminar]
[Comparative Literature 211. Mysticism and Literature: Seminar]

[Freshman Seminar 34j. Medieval and Early Modern Love Poetry]
[Literature 157 (formerly Comparative Literature 111). From Type to Self in the Middle Ages]

[Spanish 110. Hispanic Literature: The Middle Ages]

[Spanish 120. Medieval Spain in the Poem of the Cid]
[Spanish 204. Love and Power in 14th-Century Castille: Juan Ruiz and Juan Manuel]
[Spanish 220. Jews and Judaism in Medieval Spanish]