Dr. Atienza received a B.A. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1993 and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1995 and 2000, respectively. She has been at Clark since 2003.
Dr. Atienza is currently working on a book tentatively titled Cervantes and the Chameleon: The Story of Shame in Early Modern Spain. While shame is often seen in contemporary culture as simply a painful emotion or even a psychological disorder, in this study she argues that Cervantes’ vision of shame is more complex and closely linked to his nuanced understanding of issues in early modern Spain such as identity, hybridity, secrecy, and the problematic position of excluded minorities such as conversos. She is especially interested in the literary representations of marginal groups—the poor, the ill, the outcast—as well as the conditions in which they lived. Her other research interests include gender and women’s studies, history of theater, pedagogy, and cinema.
Dr. Atienza teaches courses in Spanish language as well as advanced undergraduate courses on Early Modern Spanish literature and history. These courses include the history of madness and the carnivalesque, the Spanish inquisition, the history of gender in the Hispanic World—Spain, Mexico, and the Caribbean.