Dr. María Garcés

Biography

María Antonia Garcés is an Emerita Professor of Hispanic Studies at Cornell University, specializing in early modern Spanish literatures and colonial Hispanic American studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Spanish Renaissance Studies from Johns Hopkins University and her M.A. in English from Georgetown University. As a transatlantic scholar, Garcés has focused her research on Mediterranean studies and the historical psychoanalytic approaches to literature. Her special fields of interest include the early modern contacts between Islam and Christianity in Spain and the Mediterranean, with a particular emphasis on the works of Cervantes. She is currently investigating the human, cultural, and economic exchanges between Spain and North Africa during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly the phenomenon of renegades. Garcés's work includes a study on Cervantes's captivity and its impact on fiction, resulting in the book "Cervantes Algiers: Captive’s Tale," which garnered the Modern Language Association’s James Russell Lowell Prize in 2003. Her archival research has produced significant projects regarding the Algiers Ottoman rule and the socio-cultural dynamics of the late sixteenth century. Garcés is preparing a volume for publication on Antonio de Sosa’s History of Algiers in the sixteenth century, demonstrating her commitment to enriching the understanding of early modern Iberian literatures and cultures.

Research Interests