Elena Casey » Department of Romance Studies

Ph.D. Student in Spanish

Education

M.A. Spanish, Middlebury College in Spain, Madrid
B.A. Spanish, English Literature, Messiah College

Bio

Elena Casey is a Ph.D. student of Spanish and Royster Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill. Originally from Ithaca, NY, Elena received her B.A. from Messiah College and has studied as a visiting scholar at the Universities of Barcelona and Oxford. She came to UNC after completing her M.A. through Middleburg College in Madrid, Spain.

Elena researches the representations of melancholy, madness, and mental illness in Early Modern Spanish Literature, specifically focusing on the relationship between melancholy and empire in 17th century Spanish theater and prose. She has presented her research at the Carolina Conference for Romance Studies (2014) and the Congreso in Queens, NY (2015) for the Asociación Internacional de Teatro Español y Novohispano de los Siglos de Oro (AITENSO). She currently teaches Intermediate Spanish 203 and Spanish 330: the Cultural History of the Spanish-Speaking World from Prehistory through Conquest. She has previously taught Spanish 105 for Advanced Beginners and has worked as a Graduate Research Consultant for first year seminars on Early Modern Sexuality and Courts, Courtiers, and Court Culture in Early Modern Spain. She will be teaching Spanish 101 for Beginners in the summer of 2016.

Elena has also worked as a coordinator of the Carolina Conference for Romance Studies and student editor for Hispanófila and Romance Notes. Beyond the department, Elena works as a tutor for student athletes through the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes (ASPSA) and is a mentor for undergraduate Covenant Scholars.

Publications

“The Cuartanas of Lisis: The Remissive Etiology of the Novelas amorosas y ejemplares by María de Zayas y Sotomayor” (published in eHumanista 32)
“A Literary Empire: Geographic, Textual, and Ideological Encounters in Early Modern Spain” (co-authored with Holly Sims, published in Hispanófila 173).