Kyle James Matthews

Dept. of Hispanic Studies, Box 1961, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912
Contact: kjmatthews (at) gmail (dot) com Teaching Portfolio 617.694.9708
PDF file Download a copy of my CV (PDF)

Education

Brown University Department of Hispanic Studies (Providence, RI)
Ph.D. Candidate (anticipated 2012)
Dissertation: “Bodies of Evidence: Bodies and Nation in Mexican Historiographic Metafiction”
Advisor: Professor Julio Ortega
Master of Arts (2008)
Thesis: “El realismo grotesco en Rayuela”
Indiana University (Bloomington, IN)
B.S. Magna cum laude (high honors) in Music and Spanish (with honors) (2003)
Thesis: “Resonances of Faulkner in La muerte de Artemio Cruz”

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Teaching Competencies

Hispanic Culture & Literature
The Latin American Historical Metanovel
The Uses of History in Latin America
The Novel of the Mexican Revolution
The Modern Latin American Novel
Literary Theory
Introduction to Literary Theory
Psychoanalytic Reading (Freud & Lacan)
Derrida and Deconstruction
Spanish Language
Basic Spanish I & II
Intermediate Spanish I & II
Advanced Spanish Conversation
Advanced Spanish Composition
Medical Spanish

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Research Interests

20th- & 21st-century Mexican narrative  ♦  20th-century Latin American narrative  ♦  Latin American historical fiction  ♦  colonial & 19th-century Latin American narrative  ♦  Jewish Latin American fiction  ♦  science-fiction & fantasy  ♦  modern critical theory and philosophy

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Teaching Experience

Lecturer (College of the Holy Cross, Worcester MA)

Full instructor for two sections of multi-section Spanish courses taught through the Department of Spanish. Designed and implemented all course materials, including syllabus and daily lesson plans and activities; graded papers and exams; held weekly office hours.
Intermediate Spanish II (Fall 2011, anticipated Spring 2012)  ♦  Introduction to Literary Genres (anticipated Spring 2012)

Teaching Assistant (Brown University, Providence RI)

Full instructor of a section of a multi-section Spanish language course taught through the Department of Hispanic Studies. Designed and implemented daily lesson plans to complement department-provided syllabus; graded all papers and exams; held weekly office hours.
Basic Spanish I (Fall 2006)  ♦  Basic Spanish II (Spring 2007)  ♦  Intermediate Spanish II (Fall 2007)  ♦  Spanish Conversation & Culture (Spring 2008)  ♦  Advanced Composition in Spanish (Fall 2008)

Teaching Fellow (Brown University, Providence RI)

In addition to the responsibilities listed above under Teaching Assistant, mentored new teaching assistants by sharing material and teaching advice, and performed select administrative tasks to assist course supervisor
Advanced Composition in Spanish (Spring 2008)  ♦  Advanced Spanish II (Fall 2010)

Instructor (Brown University, Providence RI)

Medical Spanish (2009–present): Designed and implemented a course for second-year medical students, taught at and through the Brown University Medical School.
Spanish 2 (Fall 2011), Spanish 3 (Fall 2010): Designed and implemented second- and third-semester Spanish language courses, taught through the Office of Continuing Education at Brown University.

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Professional Development and Training

Teaching Consultant (2009–present)
Ran short teaching workshops for various university departments; observed and provided feedback on classes offered by graduate students and faculty in all disciplines; observed and provided feedback on peer presentations.
Discussion Leader (2009–present)
Facilitated group workshop discussions for the discussion of practical methods and techniques for developing and improving a reflective teaching practice for the Certificate I program.
Mellon Workshop Participant (2008–2009)
Attended and participated in a graduate student-run seminar entitled Bodies and Nations in the Nineteenth Century.

The following certificate programs were completed through the Instituto Cervantes

Certified D.E.L.E. (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language) Oral Examiner (Nov. 2009)
Completed a six-hour-and-a-half hour training seminar through the Instituto Cervantes New York at Brown University.
“De la lectura a la escritura en la clase de Español como Lengua Extranjera (E/LE)” (Jan. 2010)
Attended a three-hour seminar on strategies to encourage students to write effectively and creatively about authentic texts, beginning at the earliest levels of Spanish language instruction.
Training session on AVE (Aula Virtual del Español) (Feb. 2010)
Attended a three-hour training session on the resources available to teachers and students through AVE.
“Hablando se entiende la gente: la dimensión afectiva en la clase de L2” (Feb. 2010)
Attended a three-hour seminar on how the affective aspects of a classroom manifest and can be controlled and utilized by the instructor to improve second-language instruction.
Jornadas de formación en evaluación Oct. 2010
Attended an all-day workshop on evaluation in foreign-language classes, including a lecture on evaluation through task-based learning, a roundtable discussion of ACTFL and DELE guidelines, and a workshop on designing valid and reliable exams.
“Recursos digitales en la clase de español” Nov. 2010
Attended a three-hour workshop on the use of digital resources, including blogs, chat, Web forums, and social networks in the foreign language classroom, organized by Mary Glasgow/Scholastic.
Jornadas de formación: La dimensión afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas (Mar. 2011)
Attended an all-day workshop on the affective aspects of the foreign language classroom, including a lecture on multiple intelligences, a roundtable discussion on stimulating emotional connections and personal meaning in the classroom, and a workshop on teaching heritage speakers.
Jornada de formación: La competencia docente digital en la enseñanza del ELE (Oct. 2011)
Attended an all-day workshop on the developing digital competency in the classroom, including a lecture on social networking technologies, a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges presented by digital learning, and workshops on meaningful interactions through social networks and on the creation of multimodal texts.

The following certificate programs were completed through the Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at Brown University

Certificate I: Sheridan Teaching Seminar (2006–2009)
Yearlong, six-session seminar, with corresponding workshops, organized around the concept and development of reflective teaching practices.
Certificate II: Classroom Tools Seminar (2009–2011)
Yearlong, six-session seminar designed to explore effective pedagogical strategies. Topics include: teaching with artifacts and objects; incorporating technology such as wikis, blogs, multimedia and new media into the classroom; designing clear, effective assignments that facilitate student learning; developing assessment strategies that reinforce class objectives and learning goals; leading effective classroom discussions; developing and delivering engaging lectures.
Certificate III: Professional Development Seminar (2009–2010)
Yearlong, seven-session seminar organized around the concept of the Teaching Portfolio and its component parts, designed to build a strong teaching portfolio and document teaching practice as scholarship
Certificate IV: Teaching Consultant Program (2009–2010)
Professional training in peer observation, feedback skills, leadership, and discussion facilitation.
Various seminars at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Responding to Student Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (16 September 2009)
Digital Storytelling (30 September 2009)
Faculty Life at a Liberal Arts College (8 October 2009)
Integrating Writing into Intermediate-Level Courses (26 October 2009)
Leading Discussions in the Humanities and Social Sciences (17 November 2009)
Does Translation Have a Place in a Foreign Language Curriculum? (1 December 2009)
How Implicit Biases Affect Our Teaching Practices (9 December 2009)
Using Visual Images to Enhance Critical Thinking & Communication (22 March 2011)
How to Deepen Learning through Critical Reflection (20 April 2011)
How Can I Engage Them? (2 May 2011)
Online Networking Tools in Teaching (17 May 2011)
Workshop Series on Teaching Foreign Languages:
Redesigning the Foreign Language Curriculum (25 February 2010)
Integrating Community-Based Learning into Language Courses (18 March 2010)
Incorporating the Arts into the Foreign Language Classroom (15 April 2010)
Teaching Reading Comprehension through Literature (27 October 2010)
Effective Task Design for Communicative Language Teaching Parts I, II (24 February, 3 March 2011)
Practical Techniques for Teaching Vocabulary and Grammar Parts I, II (14 April, 21 April 2011)
Workshop Series on Teaching Literature
Leading Discussions in Literature Classes (23 March 2011)
Responding to Student Writing in Literature Classes (12 October 2011)
Teaching, Not Telling: The Workshop Method of Teaching Literature (16 November 2011)
Workshop Series on Visualizations & Representations In Teaching & Learning
Teaching Effectively with Visuals (23 February 2011)
Using Visual Images to Enhance Critical Thinking & Communication (22 March 2011)
Year of Reflective Learning Series
Nurturing the Development of the Reflective Thinker (2 November 2011)
Reading, Reflecting and Relating (2 November 2011)

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Dissertation Abstract. Bodies of Evidence: Bodies and Nation in Mexican Historiographic Metafiction

Mexican nationhood and the imaginary construction of its national identity are littered with bodies. The beautiful bodies of post-independence, 19th-century nation-building projects have given way to the grotesque, sexualized, dead, and farcical bodies that populate a growing wave of contemporary historical fiction. My dissertation explores three ways in which historical novels written between 1987 and 2009 appropriate and deploy these bodies as principle among their strategies of narrative and thematic construction. First, as a shift in the origins of national identity away from the thoroughly ideologized, paternal heroes of the Mexican Revolution onto the grotesquely fertile body of "Mamá Carlota," the dying, forgotten legacy of the French Intervention. Second, as symptoms of the irruption of the unassimilable Lacanian real into everyday reality in the form of dead bodies that fragment the symbolic network that gives meaning and coherence to the nation, undermining popular conceptions of national identity and exposing hidden relations of power. Third, as a prop to be farcically dressed and undressed as suits the ephemeral needs of political legitimacy and nationalistic social cohesion. I explore these themes through six historical novels in which the human body serves as a space in which to dramatize and reenact historical traumas as a way to explore the profound social and political crises that trouble present-day Mexico.

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Research Awards and Fellowships

Dissertation Research Fellowship (2009–2010)
Competitively awarded on the basis of academic merit by Brown University
University Fellowship (2005–2006)
Competitive first-year fellowship for graduate study at Brown University

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Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles
“La muerte de Artemio Cruz: otras voces.” Actas de La región más transparente: 50 años después. Ed. Georgina García Gutiérrez . México D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In press.
Book Reviews
Max Parra. Writing Pancho Villa’s Revolution: Rebels in the Literary Imagination of Mexico. INTI: Revista de Literatura Hispánica (61-62): 331-336.
Editorial Work
Assistant Editor: Fuentes, Carlos. Obras reunidas III. Ed. Julio Ortega. México D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica. 2008.

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Conference and Other Presentations

  • “The Mexican Political Nightmare in Jorge Volpi's Unintentional Historical Novel.” Political Nightmares in Iberian and Latin American literatures. University of Chicago, April 2011.
  • “Hijos de Mamá Carlota: Fernando del Paso’s Project for an Alternative Mexican Identity in Noticias del Imperio.” Points of Tectonic Clashes: Dialoguing in Today’s (Ir)Reality. University of Connecticut, March 2011.
  • “Border Trouble: Turning Readers into Authors in Diego de San Pedro's Sentimental Fiction.” 8th Annual New England Medieval Studies Consortium Graduate Student Conference. Brown University, March 2011.
  • “Baroque Jazz: Toward a New Understanding of Musical Form in Carpentier’s Concierto Barroco.” Del barroco al neobarroco: barroquismos y barroqueces en el mundo hispano‐transatlántico, McGill University Department of Hispanic Studies Graduate Student Conference. McGill University, Montreal, May 2009.
  • “La muerte de Artemio Cruz: Otras voces.” Session titled “Reinsicripciones de la narrativa de Carlos Fuentes: diálogos interdisciplinarios.” La región más transparente: 50 años después. UNAM, México, D.F., November 2008.
  • Guest lecturer for “Gabriel García Márquez.” Brown University, September 2008.

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Other Research

Research Assistant to Prof. Aldo Mazzuchelli: the modernity of postmodernity (2009)

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Service

Conference Organizing Committees
Monstruos y monstruosidades: Primer congreso graduado, Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University, 29-30 October 2010
Futuros: quinto congreso transatlántico, Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University, 7-10 April 2010
(R)evolution(s): Third Annual Graduate Student Conference, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Watson Institute, Brown University, 9 October 2009
Colloquium Organizing Committee (Fall 2010–present)
Graduate Student Dissertation Colloquium Series. Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University
Graduate Student Representative (Fall 2009–present)
Standing Committee, Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University (Fall 2009-Spring 2010)
Department Representative (Fall 2009–Spring 2010)
Graduate Student Council, Brown University
Departmental Proctor (Spring 2009, Spring 2011)
Web consultant
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Watson Institute, Brown University (2009-2010)
Office of International Affairs, Brown University (2010)
Webmaster
Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University (2007–present)
Transatlantic Project, Department of Hispanic Studies, Brown University (2007–present)
La ciudad literaria, professional Web site of Julio Ortega (2007–present)

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Professional Affiliations

  • Modern Language Association (2008-present)

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Languages

  • English (native speaker)
  • Spanish (native fluency)
  • Portuguese (reading proficiency, some speaking proficiency)
  • French (basic reading proficiency)

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References

Julio Ortega, Professor of Hispanic Studies
84 Prospect Street, Box 1961, Providence, RI 02912
Julio_Ortega@brown.edu
(401) 863-2564
Stephanie Merrim, Professor of Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies
84 Prospect Street, Box 1961, Providence, RI 02912
Stephanie_Merrim@brown.edu
(401) 863-3159
Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies; Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies
172 Meeting Street, Box 1958, Providence, RI 02912
Suzanne_Stewart-Steinberg@brown.edu
(401) 863-6898

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