Pablo García Piñar

Pablo García Piñar is an Assistant Instructional Professor in the Department of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on premodern critical disability studies and early modern Spanish literature, particularly exploring how literature shaped disabling social processes and the embodiment of state authority in early modern Spain. He holds a PhD in Romance Studies from Cornell University (2015), an MA from the University of Delaware, and a BA in English Philology from the Universidad de Granada.

His academic interests include the role of bodily normalcy in Habsburg administrative practices, disability representation in Golden Age Spanish drama (e.g., Juan Ruiz de Alarcón’s Las paredes oyen), and Cervantes’ exploration of corporeal identity. He has taught Spanish language courses at all proficiency levels and specialized courses on disability in early modern literature and transatlantic identities.

Recent awards include the Renaissance Society of America’s Paul Oskar Kristeller Fellowship (2022), a Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship (2022), and a Huntington Library Travel Grant (2023). His current book project, Unfit for Office: Normativity and the Embodiment of State Authority in Early Modern Spain, examines the exclusion of individuals from administrative roles based on physical appearance.

Teaching highlights include Monsters and Misfits: Disability in Early Modern Spanish Literature (Spring 2024) and courses on Iberian literatures and cultures. His research bridges critical disability studies with early modern Spanish cultural history, emphasizing the intersection of embodiment and power structures.