Rate My Professor Alyssa Selmer

Alyssa Selmer is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages at Cornell College. She specializes in Golden Age Spain with a focus on subaltern voices and has interests in contemporary Peninsular Spain. Selmer earned her Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures from the University of Minnesota in 2013, an M.A. in Hispanic Literatures from the same university in 2005, and a B.A. in English and Spanish from Lawrence University in 1996. Her academic career includes serving as Lecturer at Cornell College from 2011 to 2014, Visiting Assistant Professor there from 2015 to 2016, and Assistant Professor since 2016, advancing to Associate Professor. Prior to her tenure-track position, she held positions as Adjunct Instructor at Coe College from 2010 to 2011, Lecturer at the University of Iowa from 2005 to 2010, Teaching Assistant and Graduate Instructor at the University of Minnesota from 2002 to 2005, and Writing Center Tutor there in 2004-2005.

Selmer's research centers on Spanish Golden Age theater and the novel, recuperating female voices of the Golden Age in transatlantic studies, contemporary marginalized voices of Spain, Spain's linguistic and cultural minorities, and Spain's position within the European Union alongside issues of immigration and emigration. She is authoring a book in progress titled Reconsidering the Case of María de Zayas: Readings through the Optic of the Monstrous. Her scholarly presentations include 'Building a Monster: Tortured Bodies in María de Zayas' at the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference in 2017, 'Enfreaking the Monstrous Hybridity of the Feminine in "El juez de su causa" and "La esclava de su amante"' at the 37th Annual Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures in 2017, the Humanities and Arts Interest Group Lecture 'María de Zayas’s Baroque Labyrinth of Horror' at Cornell College in 2017, and 'Lo grotesco en El coronel no tiene quién le escriba' at the University of Minnesota in 2003. She teaches courses such as Beginning Spanish I-III, Intermediate Spanish I-II, Advanced Spanish Grammar, Writing in Spanish, Introduction to Literary Analysis, Topics in Peninsular Literature, 20th Century Peninsular Novel and Poetry, Don Quijote, Spain in Transition, and The Image of the Immigrant in Contemporary Spain. Selmer is a member of the Modern Language Association, Latin American Studies Association, and American Association of University Professors. She contributes to programs in Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice, Classical Studies, and Medieval & Early Modern Studies at Cornell College.