María Luisa Guardiola

María Luisa Guardiola serves as Professor and Department Chair of Spanish at Swarthmore College, where she is a core faculty member in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and also affiliated with the Program in Comparative Literature. Based in Kohlberg Hall 342, she maintains regular office hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:00 PM and is accessible by appointment. Her leadership extends to shaping the Spanish curriculum and fostering interdisciplinary connections across campus.

Academic preparation:

• Ph.D. in Spanish Literature, University of Pennsylvania
• Licenciada en Filología Hispánica, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona

Professor Guardiola's research program centers on Iberian literary and cultural production from the 19th to 21st centuries, with a pronounced emphasis on women's writing. She investigates turn-of-the-century transformations, Catalan women authors, cinematic representations, and urban narratives. Her work critically examines memory politics, national identity formation, migration dynamics, and the intersections of gender, labor, and class in Spanish and Catalan contexts. Courses she teaches reflect these interests, including specialized seminars on the Spanish Civil War, women writers, and urban cartographies.

Her publication record features critical editions that illuminate foundational Spanish texts, such as García Gutiérrez's El trovador (2013) and Valera's Pepita Jiménez (2001), alongside a monograph analyzing gender in 19th-century drama. These works collectively underscore her commitment to recovering marginalized voices and contextualizing literary production within broader socio-historical frameworks. Current projects continue this trajectory with a focus on working-class women.

Recognition for her scholarship includes:

• Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society (2024), supporting her book manuscript on Spanish women workers in tobacco and textile factories at the turn of the century

Academic service and program development:

• Served as Faculty Advisor for Off-Campus Study, guiding students through international academic opportunities for three years
• Directed multiple study abroad programs in Madrid for Hamilton College and St. Lawrence University, restructuring them to deepen cultural immersion
• Designed and led Swarthmore's embedded study abroad courses, taking students on educational journeys across Spain

Her ongoing research, funded by the 2024 APS grant, explores literary representations of working-class women in late 19th- and early 20th-century Spain, with a particular focus on tobacco and textile factory workers and retail employees.