Esther M Villegas de la Torre
University College London, School of European Languages, Culture and Society, Honorary Research Fellow In Early Modern Cultural and Intellectual History
My research lies within Early Modern Studies, focusing on women's contributions to the field of cultural production via publication from an interdisciplinary, comparative approach. Such research interests in the history of ideas, language studies, and publishing also inform my ongoing professional experience in eLearning content writing and (non-)fiction children's book editing and authorship.
More specifically, my doctoral thesis, 'Women and the Republic of Letters in the Luso-Hispanic World, 1447-1700' - my examiners were Dr Glyn Redworth and Prof. Catherine Davies - charted the rise and consolidation of Luso-Hispanic women's authority as cultural producers within the Respublica litteraria, with parallels from Anglo, French, and Italian contexts. Building on my doctoral studies, my new research (funded by The European Commission and hosted by UPF and UCL) reexamines the position of women within the seventeenth-century Respublica litteraria by analysing publishing strategies in the printed work of leading commercial and scholarly authors in English and Spanish.
I have collaborated and continue to collaborate with international research groups and organisations, such as the European Research Executive Agency. My publications include articles, editions, book chapters, translations, ELE literature and film courses, and non-fiction children's books in English. For instance, I was commissioned by Austral to produce an edited anthology of premodern poetry, in Spanish translation, within a five-part anthology series on women's poetry from Sappho to the twentieth century - El canto de la décima Musa: Poesías del Renacimiento y el Barroco (2020), showcases leading examples from the Anglo, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Hispanic contexts, using my doctoral findings.
Finally, my teaching experience relates to (post-)secondary and tertiary education in the UK, Spain, and Egypt, encompassing in-person and online modules. It includes research-led undergraduate seminars and a master's course in gender studies (literature focus), as well as leading core undergraduate lectures on premodern Hispanic literary culture and creating online courses on Children's Classics in English.
Supervisors: Jeremy Lawrance
More specifically, my doctoral thesis, 'Women and the Republic of Letters in the Luso-Hispanic World, 1447-1700' - my examiners were Dr Glyn Redworth and Prof. Catherine Davies - charted the rise and consolidation of Luso-Hispanic women's authority as cultural producers within the Respublica litteraria, with parallels from Anglo, French, and Italian contexts. Building on my doctoral studies, my new research (funded by The European Commission and hosted by UPF and UCL) reexamines the position of women within the seventeenth-century Respublica litteraria by analysing publishing strategies in the printed work of leading commercial and scholarly authors in English and Spanish.
I have collaborated and continue to collaborate with international research groups and organisations, such as the European Research Executive Agency. My publications include articles, editions, book chapters, translations, ELE literature and film courses, and non-fiction children's books in English. For instance, I was commissioned by Austral to produce an edited anthology of premodern poetry, in Spanish translation, within a five-part anthology series on women's poetry from Sappho to the twentieth century - El canto de la décima Musa: Poesías del Renacimiento y el Barroco (2020), showcases leading examples from the Anglo, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Hispanic contexts, using my doctoral findings.
Finally, my teaching experience relates to (post-)secondary and tertiary education in the UK, Spain, and Egypt, encompassing in-person and online modules. It includes research-led undergraduate seminars and a master's course in gender studies (literature focus), as well as leading core undergraduate lectures on premodern Hispanic literary culture and creating online courses on Children's Classics in English.
Supervisors: Jeremy Lawrance
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Books by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
Esta antología no hace sino rendir homenaje a una vieja e importante faceta pública de la mujer, ofreciendo un corpus representativo y contextualizado de la obra poética de las autoras más celebradas en Occidente (en italiano, francés, latín, portugués, inglés y español) durante los siglos XVI y XVII, en los albores de lo que hoy se conoce como la profesión literaria.
Articles by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
This essay, therefore, reflects on the role of gender in early constructions of female au- thorship within Iberian book history, using a critical stance on Christine de Pizan and Teresa de Cartagena, informed by new approaches to the field. The aim is to vindicate the early role of women as authors within the Iberian literary field.
Book Chapters by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
Villegas de la Torre, Esther M. 2021. ‘Décima moradora del Parnaso: Género y tolerancia en la República literaria de la primera modernidad’, in Historia de la tolerancia en España, eds. Ricardo García Cárcel and Eliseo Serrano Martín (Madrid: Cátedra), pp. 171-83.
This chapter considers manifestations of literary self-consciousness in this new social climate, by published male and female writers alike, thus from a comparative stance. More specifically, the chapter reflects on the similarities, not just differences, between the promotion of male-authored and female-authored texts during the first half of the seventeenth century.
Editions and Translations by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
Invited Talks by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
ELE Courses by Esther M Villegas de la Torre
Esta antología no hace sino rendir homenaje a una vieja e importante faceta pública de la mujer, ofreciendo un corpus representativo y contextualizado de la obra poética de las autoras más celebradas en Occidente (en italiano, francés, latín, portugués, inglés y español) durante los siglos XVI y XVII, en los albores de lo que hoy se conoce como la profesión literaria.
This essay, therefore, reflects on the role of gender in early constructions of female au- thorship within Iberian book history, using a critical stance on Christine de Pizan and Teresa de Cartagena, informed by new approaches to the field. The aim is to vindicate the early role of women as authors within the Iberian literary field.
Villegas de la Torre, Esther M. 2021. ‘Décima moradora del Parnaso: Género y tolerancia en la República literaria de la primera modernidad’, in Historia de la tolerancia en España, eds. Ricardo García Cárcel and Eliseo Serrano Martín (Madrid: Cátedra), pp. 171-83.
This chapter considers manifestations of literary self-consciousness in this new social climate, by published male and female writers alike, thus from a comparative stance. More specifically, the chapter reflects on the similarities, not just differences, between the promotion of male-authored and female-authored texts during the first half of the seventeenth century.