About us

Objective and Mission of the Observatory

The Observatory of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the United States is a research center of the Instituto Cervantes–a public non-profit organization–at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University. Intended for the study of Spanish in the U.S. both in its linguistic and cultural dimensions, the Observatorio aims to serve as an international forum for analysis and debate among experts from Harvard University and other universities in the U.S., as well as from Spain and Latin America.

Unique among the Instituto Cervantes centers due to its focus on research, the Observatorio commissions and publishes studies, sponsors projects, and organizes cultural and academic events, with the purpose of promoting the prestige and knowledge of Hispanic language and cultures in the U.S. context. Its programming pays particular attention to the social and linguistic evolution of Spanish, to how it is used, learned and perceived by different kinds of speakers in the country, and to its coexistence with other languages in this multilingual and multicultural context; its research and activities also focus on literary, artistic and intellectual creation in Spanish and its dissemination both in original form and English translation.

A PDF version with general information on the Observatorio can be downloaded here.

Working in 5 areas

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Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza

Director of the Observatorio

Marta Mateo

Executive Director of the Observatorio

Victoria Iarlori Whitney

Program Manager

Contact

info-observatory@fas.harvard.edu

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Daniel Aguirre-Oteiza

Director of the Observatorio

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish) - Harvard University
Director of Graduate Studies

B.A., Universidad de Salamanca (Spain); M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University

Expertise: research in modern Spanish peninsular literature and culture (19th, 20th, and 21st centuries); modern peninsular and Latin American poetry; theory of poetry; literary translation; exile, historical memory, and testimony; nation, narration, and literary history; representations of the Spanish Civil War; Exile, Historical Memory. Poet and translator of fiction and memoir writers.

Marta Mateo

Executive Director of the Observatorio

B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)

Expertise: Professor of English Studies and Translation (Universidad de Oviedo). Research in English-Spanish translation, focusing on humour, drama, and musical texts (opera, stage and film musicals, surtitling, and multilingualism in vocal music); translation theory; English phonetics for Spanish-language speakers. Former Coordinator of the Translation and Discourse Analysis Research Group (Universidad de Oviedo). Translator of fiction and academic writing.

Gretchen Brodnicki

Administrative Dean for Arts & Humanities – Harvard University

J.D., Suffolk University Law School.

Expertise: Law Studies.

Tamar Herzog

Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs - Harvard University
Radcliffe Alumnae Professor

B.A., M.A., L.L.B., Hebrew University (Israel); Ph.D., École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (France).

Expertise: research on the relationship between Spain, Portugal, Portuguese and Spanish America; changes in Iberian societies as a result of the colonial project; early modern European history; colonial Latin American history; imperial history; Atlantic history; and Legal history (European law and colonial law).

Maria Luisa Parra

Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University

B.A., Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; M.A., Ph.D., El Colegio de México

Expertise: research on Spanish as a heritage language and pedagogy; second language acquisition and pedagogy; child language development and bilingualism; Latino families and immigration; immigration and education. Nominated by ARIST as one of the 6 Most Innovative Professors of 2019.

Felipe Pereda

Fernando Zóbel de Ayala Professor of Spanish Art - Harvard University

B.A., Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain); Ph.D., Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Expertise: research in Spanish late medieval and early modern art; art theory; image theory; history of architecture; Spanish Baroque religious imagery; the work of various artists such as Luis de Morales, Ribera, and Zurbarán. Chosen as Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for 2019 by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.

Mariano Siskind

Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Comparative Literature - Harvard University

B.A., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); M.A., Ph.D., New York University

Expertise: research in 19th- and 20th-century Latin American literature; travel writing; histories and theories of globalization and cosmopolitanism; Marxism; psychoanalysis; critical articulations of literature and philosophy.

Gabriela Soto Laveaga

Professor of the History of Science.
Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico – Harvard University

B.A., California State Dominguez Hills; M.A., Ph.D., University of California, San Diego

Expertise: Modern Latin America; intersection of science and culture; public health; scientific and medical exchange in the Global South

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Richard Bueno

Director of the Instituto Cervantes New York

B.A., Universidad de Oviedo (Spain); M.A., Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) and Aston University (United Kingdom); PhD., Universidad de Salamanca (Spain)

Expertise: research on second and foreign language acquisition and teaching; foreign language certification; language variation. Experience in teacher training, teaching teams coordination, and language certification and digital education projects. Director of the SIELE project (Servicio Internacional de Evaluación de la Lengua Española); Deputy Chair of the Executive Committee of ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe). Teaching and management experience at the centers of the Instituto Cervantes in Chicago, New York, and Manchester.

Luis Fernández Cifuentes

Robert S. and Ilse Friend Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Harvard College Professor, Emeritus - Harvard University

B.A., Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain); Ph.D., Princeton University

Expertise: research on 18th, 19th and 20th century literature in Spanish; literary history and the history of literary history; novels into films; travel literature; literature, economics and the history of money; cities (literature, architecture and urban design).

Jennifer Leeman

Professor of Hispanic Linguistics – George Mason University

B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.A., New York University and Georgetown University; Ph.D., Georgetown University

Expertise: Spanish in the United States; teaching of Spanish as a heritage language; language ideologies; multilingualism and language policy; language, race, and ethnicity census enquiries.

Christopher Maurer

Professor of Spanish at Boston University

B.A., Columbia University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania

Expertise: research on Spanish poetry from Garcilaso to the Generación del 27; biography; textual criticism; poetry’s relations with music and painting. Translator specialized in the works of Federico García Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez and Baltasar Gracián. Corresponding Member of the Real Academia Española.

Francisco Moreno Fernández

Alexander von Humboldt Professor - Heidelberg Universität (Germany)
Director of the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies

B.A, Ph.D., Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain)

Expertise: Professor of Spanish Language (Universidad de Alcalá, Spain). Research on sociolinguistics; dialectology; social history of Spanish; Spanish as a foreign language; and linguistic sociology (social conditions, dynamics, and causes underlying linguistic manifestations). Former Academic Director of the Instituto Cervantes and former Executive Director of the Observatorio.

Carlos Ramos

Margaret E. Deffenbaugh and LeRoy T. Carlson Professor in Comparative Literature Studies; Professor of Language, Contemporary Literature, and Cultural Studies at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Wellesley College

B.A., Universidad Central de Barcelona (Spain); M.A., Emerson College; Ph.D., Boston University

Expertise: 19th and 20th century literature and cultural history; urban narrative; connections between literature and architecture; works of art digitalization; Spanish Civil War photography. Former Visiting Professor at Boston University, MIT, and Brown University.

Diana Sorensen

James F. Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Comparative Literature - Harvard University

B.A., Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina); M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University

Expertise: research in 19th- and 20th-Century Latin American literature; Latin American Studies; Comparative Literature; history and memory; cultural theory and gender theory; transformations of the global in the 21st century. Member of the board of several arts and humanities organizations, such as the Silk Road Project, the National Humanities Center, and the Princess of Asturias Awards. Former Director of the Observatorio.

Do you have any question?

info-observatory@fas.harvard.edu

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HARVARD Faculty of Arts and Sciences

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