About

My interests are very wide ranging but principally concern: 1) the medieval survival and adaptation of classical texts, particularly those having to do with the Argonautica or the legend of Jason and Medea, 2) the fifteenth-century Spanish love lyric, elegy, and satire, 3) the Classical and Early Modern concept of adornment and beauty, and 4) humanities computing.

I have published books on the medieval version of the Argonautica (The Medieval Argonautica, Studia Humanitatis, 1979), which studies how the story of Jason and Medea was received by medieval writers and used as the foundation legend of the Order of the Golden Fleece at the court of the dukes of Burgundy. I plan to round this earlier study with another book on the influence of the Order of the Golden Fleece on sixteenth and seventeenth century literature.

From 1989 to 1994, I was a Fellow at the Institute for Academic Technology and worked on an electronic edition and database of the Coplas of Jorge Manrique, on the creation of a humanist’s textual workstation,  on the problems that accompany the creation of large text databases during the shift of humanities research to a computer environment, and on the early development of the Departmental webpage.

I was chair of Publications for the Department of Romance Studies at UNC and its managing editor (1995-2017). In this capacity, I oversaw the publication of Hispanófila and Romance Notes. I was in charge of the NC Series in Romance Languages and Literatures (2003-2017) for which I edited about 40 volumes, and also of the “Spanish Series” of the Dictionary of Literary Biography (1999-2007) for which I oversaw 6 volumes.

I have held fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies (1982) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (1982); the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of International Studies and Research (1985-87, 1987-1988, and 1993-1995); the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and North American Universities (1988; 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008); the Lindau Foundation (1983-85, 1987), IBM ACIS (1986-89); IBM ACIS Project Grant (1984-1989). I also directed a National Endowment Institute on the establishment of the New World colonies (“American Encounters: New Societies in a New World,” 1992, and have served as panelist for the ACLS and National Endowment for the Humanities numerous times.

I was Chair of the Department of Romance Languages from 1995 to 2003, and Assistant Chair from 1985 to 1995. I also served as Graduate Advisor from 1990 to 1995 and 2005 to 2008; have directed 21 MA Masters and 24 PhD Dissertations; and have been a member of 175 other Masters and Doctoral committees.