Faculty Scholarship Showcase

Esther María Alarcón Arana, Ph.D.

Associate Professor | Modern Languages

Dr. Esther María Alarcón Arana received her M.A. in English (2001), and both her M.A. (2010) and Ph.D. (2015) in Hispanic studies from the University of Pennsylvania. While she is interested in Transatlantic Cultural Studies, her main focus is Spain, whose artistic production she studies from a feminist and antiracist perspective. In addition to teaching at Salve Regina, she serves as secretary in the Asociación Hispánica de Humani­dades. Her recent publications include two edited volumes, Muerte y crisis en el mundo hispano (Peter Lang, 2020) and El reflejo de Medusa: Representaciones mediáticas contemporáneas de las mujeres (Advook, 2023); “Mafalda’s Music: Care Against the Patriarchal Culture of Romantic Love” in Revista de Estudios de Géne­ro y Sexualidades (2023); and “Using the Web to Educate Spain About Its Af­ro-Identity: Afroféminas” in Colonialist Gazes and Counternarratives of Black­ness. Afro-Spanishness in 20th and 21st Centuries (Routledge, 2024). She is currently working on a book studying how feminism and affect intersect in the creation of a conscious culture through contemporary Spanish music.

Using the Web to Educate Spain About Its Afro-Identity: Afroféminas

Esther M. Alarcón Arana

Summary:   This essay examines the role of the online magazine Afroféminas in educating the white Spanish community about its connections to the African continent. Through the analysis of the content and discursive strategies employed in a selection of articles, the essay argues that Afroféminas’s antiracist activism challenges two prevailing notions in contemporary Spain: national identity and feminism. Ultimately, the magazine’s didactic mission seeks to decenter hegemonic ideas of being a Spaniard and a feminist to create a hospitable space for all individuals living within Spanish territory.

Access:
Colonialist Gazes and Counternarratives of Blackness: Afro-Spanishness in 20th- and 21st-Century Spain, edited by Ana León Távora and Rosalíta Cornejo Parriego
Published by Routledge, August 2024
Chapter 4, pp. 88-110
McKillop Library Main Collection:   DP53.B45 C65 2024

 Death and Crisis in the Hispanic World

Cultural Responses 

[Muerte y crisis en el mundo hispano

Respuestas culturales]

Edited by Esther María Alarcón Arana

Summary:   This book explores the intersection between crises and deaths in different types of cultural representations—mainly literature, cinema, and other media—in the Hispanic world. Although these two categories are generally feared due to the negativity they imply, they acquire a positive tone in this book, since, departing from Michel De Certeau's concept of "tactics", these contributions focus on how the supposed victims of crises/death become agents who operate against the hegemonic power. The book is divided into three sections, namely, "Death, memory and national crises," "Crises and suicide," and "Gender, crises, and death." Within the diversity of topics this collection of essays offers, these contributions examine an idea of crisis as a condition of possibility, offering new interdisciplinary perspectives to the study of Hispanic cultures in different historical moments.  

MLA Citation

Alarcón Arana, Esther, editor. Muerte y crisis en el mundo hispano: respuestas culturales. Peter Lang, 2020.

Access

McKillop Library Main Collection:   PQ6073.D4 M84 2020

Gender Violence in Contemporary Spain

[La violencia de género en la españa contemporánea] 

Edited by Sara Fernández Medina 

III.B | Reeducate for Equality: A New Little Red Riding Hood Against Gender Violence in 21st Century Spain

[III.B | Reeducar para la igualdad: una nueva Caperucita contra la violencia de género en la España del siglo XXI] 

Esther Ma. Alarcón Arana

Summary:   One of the most frightening consequences of patriarchy in Spanish society is gender violence. Lately, this issue has received much attention in the media and the popular culture. In this article, Dr. Alarcón Arana examines the educational objective of a new version of Little Red Riding Hood, Caperucita Roja, as written by Patxi Irurzun and accompanied by the photographs by Clemente Bernad that chronicle the disappearance of Marta del Castillo. The combination of these two texts demonstrate new spaces to challenge patriarchy, by subverting the mysogynist ideas that dominate society and attempt to change our reality by means of positive examples and a critique of patriarchy. 

MLA Citation

Alarcón Arana, Esther. “Reeducar para la igualdad: una nueva Caperucita contra la violencia de género en la España del siglo XXI.” La violencia de género en la España contemporánea, edited by Sara Fernández Medina, Fundación de la Universidad de Alcalá, 2020. 

Access

Purchase e-book:   amazon.com

Please fill out an Interlibrary Loan Request Form or contact a librarian to access this publication.