María M. CarriónChair, Department of Religion. Professor of Religion and Comparative Literature

Prof. Carrión specializes in the cultural and religious production of Spain during the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries, with a particular focus on questions of drama, law, and architecture.  She has published articles and translations on the literature and culture of the Hispanic Caribbean. Her work analyzes religious and cultural matters in the many worlds of latinidad, ranging from Andalusi gardens to religious branding, to devotion, and the sacred. She is currently working on a digital monograph exploring correspondences of nature and belief in 16th-century European dried gardens.

She has presented her work in the US, Spain, South America, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia, and her essays have been published in the US, Spain, France, and South America.

She has organized several conferences at Emory University, including "Spain Before Spain. Encounters Between Muslims, Jews, and Christians (1500-1700).”

From 2009-2011 she held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. In 2012-2013 she served as Dean of Graduate Studies at UPRRP’s School of Humanities.  Since 2019 she holds a joint appointment in Religion and Comparative Literature.

Education

• PhD, Yale University, 1990
• MPhil, Yale University, 1988
• MA, Yale University, 1987
• MA, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1985
• MA, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1983
• BA, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, 1981

Research and Teaching

• Religion and literature
• Sacred spaces
• Natural history and empire
• Andalusi history and cultures
• Caribbean literature
• Latinx religions

Publications

• Subject Stages.  Marriage, Theatre, and the Law in Early Modern Spain.  Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2010
• Arquitectura y cuerpo en la figura autorial de Teresa de Jesús.  Barcelona: Anthropos, 1994
• “La niña de Gómez Arias de Luis Vélez de Guevara, teatro casi imposible,” in La niña de Gómez Arias by Luis Vélez de Guevara.  Ed. C. George Peale and William R. Manson.  Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 2015
• Puerto Rico (1908-1912). El viaje cartográfico del teniente William H. Armstrong. Eds. María D. Luque and Lanny Thompson. Transl. María M. Carrión and Aurora Lauzardo.  Santurce: Ediciones Puerto, 2020
• “‘One Kind of Water Attracts Another.’ Teresa de Jesús and Ibn ‘Arabi.” Spanish Mysticism. Special issue of Religions 2020, 11 (10), 542
• “Planting Dwelling Thinking. Natural History and Natural Philosophy in 16th-Century European Dried Gardens.” Eds. Oana Matei and Ana Duarte Rodrigues. Gardens and Landscapes, Sciendo 6 (2019): 5-19
• “Jardines del alma. Hacia una teología comparada de la Alhambra y el Castillo interior.” Siwô,’ Revista de Teología 11 (2018) 1: 81-105
• “Planted Knowledge. Art, Science, and Preservation in the 16th-Century Herbarium from the Hurtado de Mendoza Collection in El Escorial.” Manipulating Flora. Gardens as Laboratories in Early Modern Europe. Eds. Oana Matei and Fabrizio Baldassarri Special Issue of Journal of Early Modern Studies 6 (2017) 1: 47-67.
• “Legally Bound. Women, Acting, and the Law in Early Modern Spain.” Renaissance Drama 44 (2016) 2: 233-248
• “Alborada de las ruinas. Teresa de Jesús y la memoria histórica de al-Andalus.” eHumanista 33 (2016): 74-86
• “After Thought. Devotion, Teresa de Jesús, and Miguel de Cervantes.” Special issue: Homenaje a Santa Teresa de Jesús en el quincentenario de su nacimiento. Ed. Josefina López. Romance Quarterly 63 (2016) 1: 40-50
• “Translation and Decolonization. El viaje cartográfico del teniente William H. Armstrong. Puerto Rico (1908-1912).” Translation & Difference. Eds. Yvette Torres & Don Walicek. Special issue of Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language & Culture (2015-2016) I & II: 31-48
• “El Caribe vegetal y luminoso de Flora, con Agustín Stahl y Rafael Trelles.” Visión Doble. Online journal (15 April 2015)
• Translation: “Flora: A Verdant and Luminous Caribbean, with Agustín Stahl and Rafael Trelles.” Transl. David Auerbach and Joan Pabón. Visión Doble. Online journal (15 November, 2015)
• “Amor a Dios, por amor al arte. Arquitectura e iconografía en los jardines letrados de Teresa de Jesús.” Repensando la experiencia mística desde las ínsulas extrañas. Ed.Luce López-Baralt. Coord. Beatriz Cruz Sotomayor. Madrid: Editorial Trotta, 2013. 277-308
• “Primero huerto. Iconography, Anamorphism, and the Idea of the Garden in 16th-Century Spanish Mysticism.” La Corónica 41.1 (2012) Fall: 61-92
• “Home, Sweet Home. Teresa de Jesús, Mudéjar Architecture, and the Place of Mysticism in Early Modern Spain.” Brill Companion to Hispanic Mysticism. Ed. Hilaire Kallendorf. Leiden: Brill, 2010. 343-366
• “Scent of a Mystic Woman. Teresa de Jesús and the Interior Castle.” Medieval Encounters 15 (2009): 130-156
• “'En el más profundo centro.' San Juan de la Cruz y el espacio sagrado.” Revista San Juan de la Cruz. Segunda etapa, año XXIV 42.2 (2008): 25-46
• “Here Comes the Real Bride. Anna de Austria and the Birth of Theatre in Early Modern Spain.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 40 (2006): 113-144
• “The Burden of Evidence. Performances of Violence, Marriage, and the Law in Calderón de la Barca’s El médico de su honra.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 3 (2003) XXVII 3: 447-468
• “Portrait of a Lady. Marriage, Postponement, and Representation in Ana Caro’s El Conde Partinuplés.” Modern Language Notes 114 (1999): 241-268
• “Twin Peaks and the Circular Ruins of Fiction. Figuring (Out) Acts of Reading.” Literature Film Quarterly 21 (1993) 4: 240-247
• “La función poética del 'almario:' la Alquimia y los procesos de figuración de lectura y escritura en La dama boba de Lope de Vega.” Bulletin of the Comediantes 43 (Winter 1991) 2: 239-257