Issue 27

Faculty Focus

Genaro Pérez, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish, Retires

Genaro Pérez came to CMLL as a Full Professor in the fall of 1995. During his time here, he sustained his reputation as an individual with a true vocation for teaching and a powerful commitment to excellence in every endeavor. Although he was known primarily as a researcher, Genaro was an outstanding teacher who knew how to bring his knowledge and expertise into the classroom. While at CMLL, Genaro began and led the Granada, Spain study abroad program, one of the first study abroad programs of CMLL in Spain. The Granada Program helped inspire and lead to the Sevilla, Spain Program which has been one of the most successful Texas Tech Study Abroad Programs for several years now.

During his tenure at CMLL, he also distinguished himself in that which comes as part of the charge of being a noted scholar: administrative service. He was a constant presence on countless Departmental and University Committees and on panels of national and international literary organizations. His long service as Graduate Advisor also spoke to his well-deserved reputation as a guide and mentor to many students. He was also an unselfish leader in the Department who used his experience, knowledge and connections to mentor and motivate students and junior faculty into presenting at conferences, writing and publishing. The multiple accolades he received in the manner of student evaluations and of research awards throughout the years attest to the fact that he was often able to match knowledge, skill and experience with true mentorship and a strong dedication to the goals and purposes of the Department and of scholarship in general.

In the area of research, Genaro was, and continues to be, an outstanding scholar who has written over 10 scholarly books and has published scores of articles, essays, and chapters in books and literary treatises. He has presented papers at countless conferences in the US and abroad. His research encompasses several areas of Hispanic literature. His 2002 book on Hispanic Detective Fiction, was on the cutting edge of said area of study and quickly became an essential reference tool for scholars in the genre.

Indeed, as scholar, teacher, colleague and friend, Genaro Perez will most certainly be missed at CMLL.

New faculty

Jan Hohenstein – Lecturer and Coordinator of German

My name is Jan. I completed my BA in German Studies at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2009, and my MA in German Literature at the Universität Konstanz in Constance, Germany, in 2014. I worked as a language assistant and German teacher at different high schools in the Netherlands from 2014-17—I grew up close to the Dutch border in a small town in Northern Germany. I moved to the US in 2017 to pursue a PhD in Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where I am currently finishing my dissertation thesis on the Austrian writer Adalbert Stifter (1805-1869) and the Enlightenment.

I joined the Department of Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures as a Lecturer in German in fall 2022. Working with students and colleagues here at Texas Tech has been great and it is nice that the department houses languages from around the world. I hope that students in my classes get an understanding of the linguistic and cultural diversity in the German speaking countries. I enjoy teaching German at all levels and motivating students to continue with foreign language learning inside and outside of the classroom.

shepard
Mathilda Shepard, Assistant Professor of Spanish

Mathilda Shepard is excited to join the CMLL faculty as an Assistant Professor of Spanish specializing in 20th- and 21st-Century Latin American literature and cultural studies. Her research broadly examines the intersections between ecological thinking, sexual politics and racial formations in contemporary visual and performance art. She is currently working on a book project about the post-pornography movement in Colombia, Mexico and the Southern Cone, as well as a series of articles and collaborative publications on life politics, plantation afterlives and Indigenous cultural production across the Americas. Her articles have appeared in the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Journal of Latin American & Latinx Visual Culture and Revista de Estudios Colombianos.

Shepard received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2022. Beyond research and teaching, she enjoys playing guitar and banjo.

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