Kimberly Nance
Professor
Lang Literatures & Cultures
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
PhD University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Spanish American Literature Secondary Areas: Folklore, Critical Theory, Educational Policy MA University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Spanish Literature BA University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Spanish Education, Summa cum laude
Current Courses
305.001Current Topics In Hispanic Civilization & Culture
203.001Nations And Narration AMALI: Latin America
235.001Spanish for Health Care
Teaching Interests & Areas
Offices: Modern Language Association of America, Division on Teaching as a Profession, Executive Committee, 2012-2017
Modern Language Association of America, Division on Teaching of Literature, Executive Committee, 2000-2005, Chair 2002-2004
Midwest Modern Language Association, Division on Multicultural Literature in the Classroom, Chair 2005, Secretary, 2004
Midwest Modern Language Association, Division on Peace Literature and Pedagogy, Chair, 1998, Secretary 1997
Award: College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Humanities Teacher
Courses taught:
Children on the Edge: Young Narrators in Novels of Dictatorship; Bildungsroman Across Borders; Mirame, Diversity and Visibility in Spain and Latin America; Nations & Narrations of Latin America; Latin American Popular Culture; Spanish for Health Care, The Boom: Latin American Literature Goes Global; Larger than Life: Latin American Icons; Spanish American Short Stories from 1996-Next Month: Proyecto Sherezade; Seminar on Form and Function in Spanish American Folklore; Latin American Novels of the 1960s; Sor Juana Seminar; Latin American Lifewriting; Literatures of Cultural Encounter; Violence and Responses to Violence in Latin American Narrative; Borges, Bombal and Cortázar; Chronicles and Travelers’ Tales; Latin American Folklore and Popular Culture; Casona, Sastre and Buero Vallejo; Images of the Indio in the Modern Spanish-American Novel; Fantastic and Magical Realism in Latin American Literature; Senior Seminar; Survey of Spanish-American Literature; Introduction to Hispanic Literature; Spanish American Civilization; Serving Spanish-Speaking Populations; Modern Spanish Novel; Academic Spanish for Spanish Speakers; Grammar; Composition; Conversation
Research Interests & Areas
American Library Association/Choice Academic Book Award for Can Literature Promote Justice? Trauma Narrative and Social Action in Latin American Testimonio (2007)
Interests:
theories of reading and reception, literature and social justice, psychology and neurobiology of narrative, narrating war and torture, Aristotelian rhetorical categories and persuasion, folklore and literature, second person narrative, innovations in narrative technique, theories of the fantastic and magical realism, teaching literature
Ph D Latin American Literature and Culture
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
MA Spanish Literature
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
BA Teaching of Spanish
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
American Library Association Choice Academic Book for Can Literature Promote Justice?
American Library Association
2007
College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Humanities Teacher
1990
Book Review
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Ortiz-Vilarelle, Lisa. Americanas, Autocracy, and Autobiographical Innovation. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. 26 October 2022.
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Weldt-Basson, Helene. Masquerade and Social Justice in Contemporary Latin American Fiction. Hispanófila, 182 (2018): 208-210.
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Nava, Alex. Wonder and Exile in the New World. Bulletin of Spanish Studies (formerly Bulletin of Hispanic Studies), 93, 5, 22 June 2016: 887-888.
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Robinson, Lorna. Gabriel García Márquez and Ovid. Magical and Monstrous Realities. Bulletin of Spanish Studies (formerly Bulletin of Hispanic Studies). 92, 2, 2015. 310-312. This number of the journal was released online in December, 2014.
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Amaya, Hector, Screening Cuba: Film Criticism as Political Performance During the Cold War. Reception: Texts, Readers, Audiences, History. 4 (Fall 2012): 17- 18.
Nance, Kimberly A. Review of Carroli, Piera, Literature in Second Language Education, Modern Language Journal 94 (2010): 499-500.
Book, Authored
Nance, Kimberly A. Ethics of Witness in Global Testimonial Narratives: Responding to the Pain of Others. Lanham MD: Lexington/Rowman and Littlefield, 2020. 158 pp.
Nance, Kimberly A. Teaching Literature in the Languages. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2010. 258 pp.
Nance, Kimberly A. Can Literature Promote Justice? Trauma Narrative and Social Action in Latin American Testimonio. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. 2006. 212 pp. [American Library Association/CHOICE Award Outstanding Academic Book 2007; Reviewed in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 40 3 (2006): 604-605; Human Rights Quarterly 29.2 (2007) 533-537; Contra corriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America 5 1 (Fall 2007): 228-235]
Nance, Kimberly A. Cervantine Satire and Folk Syncretism in Paulo de Carvalho-Neto’s Mi tío Atahualpa. Lewiston, NY: Mellen Press. 2004. 175 pp.
Book, Chapter
Nance, Kimberly A. “Empirical Ethics, Theoretical Mechanics: Toward a Prosaics of Teaching Human Rights Literature.” Teaching Human Rights in Literary and Cultural Studies. MLA Options for Teaching Series. Ed. Alexandra Moore & Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg. NY: MLA: 2015. 218-226.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Hispanic literatures and cultures throughout the curriculum.” The Routledge Handbook of Hispanic Applied Linguistics. Ed. Manel Lacorte. NY: Routledge: 2014. 202-220.
Nance, Kimberly A. “’Something that might resemble a call’: Testimonial Theory and Practice in the Twenty-First Century.” Pushing the Boundaries of Latin American Testimony: Metamorphoses and Migrations. Ed. Janis Breckenridge & Louise Detwiler. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. 239-247.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Borges and Georgie: Childhood Reading, Adult Writing, and the Shape of the Latin American Fantastic.” Twice-told Children’s Tales: The Influence of Childhood Reading on Writers for Adults. Ed. Betty Greenway. New York: Routledge. 2005. 11-25.
Nance, Kimberly A. “‘Let us say that there is a human being before me who is suffering’: Empathy, Exotopy and Ethics in the Reception of Latin American Collaborative Testimonio.” Bakhtin: Ethics and Mechanics. Ed. Valerie Nollan. Rethinking Theory Series. Evanston: Northwestern. 2004. 57-73. [Reviewed in Modern Language Review 101 4 (1 October 2006): 1194-1195; Russian Review 64 1 (January 2005): 112-181]
Nance, Kimberly A. “Apropiación de propaganda religiosa de la Reconquista y la Conquista españolas: proceso de resignificación en dos novelas de protesta social latinoamericanas.” Más de 500 años de cultura mexicana. Ed. Lilia Granillo Vázquez. México: UNAM. 1994. 345-356.
Encyclopedia
Nance, Kimberly A. “Barnet, Miguel.” The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies. Ray, Sangeeta, Henry Schwarz, José Luis Villacañas Berlanga, Alberto Moreiras and April Shemak (eds). Blackwell Publishing, 2016. Blackwell Reference Online. 18 February 2016
Nance, Kimberly A. “Justice and Injustice” (Kimberly Nance and Jane Garry) Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature: A Handbook, ed. Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy. NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2005. 445-450. [Reviewed in Journal of American Folklore 122, 484 (Spring 2009)]
Nance, Kimberly A. “Seduction.” Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature: A Handbook, ed. Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy. NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2005. 283-288 [Reviewed in Journal of American Folklore 122, 484 (Spring 2009): 237-238]
Journal Article
Nance, Kimberly A. “Recursive Witness: Narrative Critique of Testimonial Criticism in Alicia Partnoy’s ‘Rosa, I Disowned You’ and ‘Disclaimer Intraducible: My Life / Is Based / On a Real Story’” in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies. 31.7 (published 13 February 2023). 113-128.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Considering Social Efficacy in Peter Dickinson’s AK.” Sankofa: Journal of African Children's and Young Adult Literature 9 (2010) 18-26.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Reading Human Rights Literature in Undergraduate Literature Classes: Professorial Desire, Disciplinary Culture, and the Chances of Cultivating Compassion.” Journal of Human Rights. 9 2 (April 2010) 161-174.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Mountains beyond Mountains: Role Models and the ‘Problem of Goodness’ in Socially Engaged Teaching.” ADFL Bulletin. 37 1 (Fall 2005) 22-26. (issue published spring 2006)
Nance, Kimberly A. “Newer Than Nuevas Novelas: Rhetorical Challenges and Ethical Import of Fetal Narrators in Ariel Dorfman’s La última canción de Manuel Sendero and Carlos Fuentes’ Cristóbal Nonato.” Hispanófila. 147 (2006) 51-68.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Only Connect? Empathy and Exotopy in Teaching Social Justice Literature.” NOTE: Notes on Teaching English. 30 (May 2006) 10-14.
Nance, Kimberly A. “If English is Spanish then Spanish is….: Literary Challenges of Representing Bilingual Speech Production and Reception in Esmeralda Santiago’s América’s Dream.” International Fiction Review 30. 1&2 (2003): 60-65.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Quotidian Magic: Murilo Rubião’s ‘O Ex Mágico da Taberna Minhota’ and Todorov’s ‘New Fantastic.’” Romance Notes 43.1 (Fall 2002): 3-12. (issue published spring 2003)
Nance, Kimberly A. “’Authentic and Surprising News of Themselves’: Engaging Students’ Pre-existing Competencies in the Introductory Literature Course.” ADFL Bulletin. 34.1 (Fall 2002): 30-34.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Contradictory Instructions: Folklore, Precepts, and Ideologies of Reading in the Latin American Fantastic.” Confluencia. 17.1 (Fall 2001): 7-18.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Disarming Testimony: Speakers’ Resistance to Writers’, Critics’, and Readers’ Appropriations in Latin American Testimonio.” Biography. 24.3 (Summer 2001): 570-588.
Nance, Kimberly A. “From Quarto de Despejo to a Little House: Domesticity as Personal and Political Testimony in the Diaries of Carolina Maria de Jesus.” PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin American Research Association. 5 (Fall 2001): 42-49.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Contained in Criticism, Lost in Translation: Representation of Sexuality and the Fantastic in María Luisa Bombal’s La última niebla and The House of Mist.” Hispanófila. 130 (2000): 41-52.
Nance, Kimberly A. “The Dynamic of Folklore in Lorca’s Early Poetics: Opening Libro de poemas and Unfolding ‘Pajarita de papel’.” Anales de la literatura española contemporánea. 25.2 (2000): 505-528.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Blancos as Indígenas: Inverting the Indigenista Novel.” Hispanic Journal. 18.2 (Fall 1997): 291-304. (issue published in 1999)
Nance, Kimberly A. “Developing Students’ Sense of Literature in the Introductory Foreign Language Literature Course.” ADFL Bulletin. 25.2 (Winter 1994): 23-29.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Self-Consuming Second-Person Fiction: José Emilio Pacheco’s ‘Tarde de agosto’.” Style. 28.3 (Fall 1994): 366-377.
Nance, Kimberly A. “The Riddle Contest as Folk Deconstruction of an Indigenista in Paulo de Carvalho-Neto’s Mi tío Atahualpa.” Chasqui. 23.1 (May 1994): 60-67.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Things Fall Apart: Images of Disintegration in Mercè Rodoreda’s La Plaça del Diamant.” Hispanófila. 101 (1991): 67-76.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Things Fall Apart: Images of Disintegration in Mercè Rodoreda’s La Plaça del Diamant.” Hispanófila. 101 (1991): 67-76.
Nance, Kimberly A. “Intimate Resistance: Susana San Juan in Pedro Páramo.” Chiricú (Chicano-Riqueño Studies). 5.2 (1988): 40-44.
Textbook, New
Nance, Kimberly A. and Isidro J. Rivera. Aprendizaje: técnicas de composición. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. 1996. 233 pp. [Ranked 4th in national adoptions in Educational Testing Service survey; Reviewed in Hispania, 81, 1 (March 1998): 115]
Textbook, Revised
Nance, Kimberly A. and Isidro J. Rivera. Aprendizaje: Strategies for Writing. 2nd edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2003. 196 pp. [Adopted at over 200 universities, including UC-Berkeley and Harvard]
Presentations
2019: “Critique of Testimonial Criticism in Alicia Partnoy’s 'Rosa, I Disowned You’ and ‘Disclaimer Intraducible’” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2019: “Implications and Applications of Repens and Repositio for Language Curricula” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2018: “The Work of Empathy in Global Testimonial Narrative” American Comparative Literature Association, Los Angeles, CA.
2017: “Clea Koff’s The Bone Woman: From Memoir and Documentary to Social Intervention” Midwest Modern Language Association, Cincinnati OH.
2015: “Teaching as a Profession: Nice Work, Good Work, Better Work” Modern Language Association, Vancouver, Canada.
2014: "'An infection with the other's suffering, nothing more'? Pathological versus Productive Empathy and Narrative Strategy" Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2014: “Hundreds of bodies on two continents, telling a single story” Assembling Narratives of Genocide in Clea Koff’s The Bone Woman. Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2013: “Use beginning, middle, and end”: Testimonial Narrative as Reintegrative Strategy in Delia Jarrett-Macauley’s Moses, Citizen & Me” Modern Language Association, Boston.
2013: “’There are some things so serious that you have to laugh at them’: Humor in the Concentration Camp Narratives of Alicia Partnoy and Hernán Valdés” Modern Language Association, Boston.
2012: “Careers for Humanists: Roles of Graduate Programs” Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, Chicago.
2012: “Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces in Testimonial Theory and Practice” Modern Language Association, Seattle.
2012: “What language is that?” Socioliterary Reading from Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them ” Conference on Literature & Culture since 1900, Louisville KY.
2011: “From Caillois to Video Game Theory: Learning in Language, Composition, and Literature as ‘Serious Play.’” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis.
2010: “University Leaders Respond to the American Council of Graduate Schools’ Path Forward Report,” Illinois Association of Graduate Schools, Charleston, IL.
2009: “From Poetics to Prosaics: Literary Texts and the Chances of Social Action,” Symposium On Comparative Human Rights: Literature, Art, Politics, Unit for Criticism & Interpretive Theory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
“Changing Places: Graduate School Responses to Contextual Challenges.”. Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools. (2008)
2008: “Considering Social Efficacy in Peter Dickinson’s AK .” Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference, Normal IL.
2008: “Late 20th Century Men’s Testimonios: Memory and Masculinity in a Transgendered Genre.” Midwest Modern Language Association. Minneapolis.
2007: “Narrative and the Possibilities of Justice for Boy Soldiers and Lost Boys” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2007: “The Art of Realism, or Why Readers Can’t Handle Reality,” Midwest Modern Language Association, Cleveland.
2005: “Spanish as a Domesticated Language: Transparency and Difference in Post-testimonial Latina Writing.” American Reception Study: Reconsiderations and New Directions, University of Delaware.
2005: “Stepping Back from the Borderlands: Multilingualism Suavizado” Modern Language Association, Washington, D.C.
2005: “What Counts as Testimonio, and Why Does it Matter?” Twentieth Century Literature Conference, Louisville, Kentucky.
2004: “Reading Paul Farmer ‘Narrating Haiti’: Lessons for Teachers.” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia.
2004: “The Problem of Goodness in Documentary Writing: Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains.” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis.
2003: “After the ‘Testimonial Boom’: What happens when a genre of margins goes mainstream?” Latin American and Caribbean Center Colloquium Series, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2003: “Unlearning the Definite Article with Respect to Other Cultures.” Modern Language Association, San Diego.
2003: “’They’ve got to be carefully taught’: Some Unintended Consequences of Multicultural Literature Classes.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Chicago.
2002: “Abolitionist Testimony, Latin American Testimonio and the Discourse of Persuasion.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
2002: “Sor Juana avant la lettre: Teaching the Court Poetry of Juana Ramírez.” Modern Language Association, New York.
2001: “Local Color: Folklore and Fakelore in the Writing of Latin American Orality.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Cleveland, Ohio.
2001: “Problematizing a Rhetoric of Relation: How Cultural Translations can Defuse Social Justice Literature.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Cleveland, Ohio.
2001: “Visual Effects: Engaging Students’ Visual Competencies in the Study of Literature.”Modern Language Association, New Orleans, Louisiana.
2000: “Afro-Hispanic and Francophone African Studies Compared: Histories, Politics, Positions, and Trajectories.”Modern Language Association, Washington D.C.
2000: “If English is Spanish then Spanish is….: Literary Challenges of Representing Bilingual Speech Production and Reception in Esmeralda Santiago’s América’s Dream.” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
2000: “Stories from the Job Search: The Nature and Functions of Search Lore.” Modern Language Association, Washington D.C.
2000: “The Experience Tale Genre as Folkloric Antecedent of the Modern Short Story.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Kansas City.
2000: “The Feminization of Latin American Testimonio.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Kansas City.
1999: “Attorney, Client and Privilege: Questioning Testimonial Identification among Women in Rosario Sanmiguel’s Callejón Sucre y otros relatos” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
1999: “Counterintuitive Ethical Outcomes of Teaching Testimonio” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
1999: “From Quarto de Despejo to a Little House: Domesticity as Personal and Political in the Work of Carolina Maria de Jesus” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
1999: “Sin, Redemption, and Secular Sainthood: The Rehabilitation of Don Juan” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
1999: “The Dynamic of Childlore in Lorca’s ‘Pajarita de papel’” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
1998: “Betting our Blood that We are Right: Testimonio and the Politics of Uncertainty”20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
1998: “Contradictory Instructions: Folklore/Literature Relations and the Latin American Fantastic” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington.
1998: “Entitlement, Obligation, and Alibi: Women’s Justice Claims in Slave Narrative and Testimonio” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis.
1998: “Meta-Testimonio in Benjamin Alire Sáenz’ Collection, Flowers for the Broken” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis.
1998: “Positions for Academic Couples: Fantasy, Debate, Gossip, Urban Legends and Cautionary Tales” Modern Language Association, San Francisco.
1998: “Staged Crucifixions as Social Protest in the Literatures and Cultures of the Americas” Modern Language Association, San Francisco.
1997: “Acknowledging the Materiality of Privilege: Analyzing Testimonio as if Power Mattered.” Modern Language Association, Toronto.
1997: “Contesting Containment Strategies: Testimonio, Governments and Readers.” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
997: “Disarming Testimony: Speakers’ Resistance to Writers’, Critics’ and Readers’ Appropriations.” Modern Language Association, Toronto.
997: “Maternity, Neoteny, Nationality and Class in Women’s Collaborative Testimonio.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, Lexington.
997: “Pictures of Privilege: Strategic Depiction of Prelapsarian Sites in Testimonial Narrative.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Chicago.
1996: “Identity, Empathy and the Possibility of Exotopy: A Bakhtinian Critique of Critics’ Constructs of Writer and Speaker in Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú and Hasta no verte Jesús mío.” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
1996: “It may be true but it did not happen: Ambivalence toward Truth in the Literature of Trauma.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
1995: “Quotidian Magic: Murilo Rubião’s ‘O Ex-Mágico da Taberna Minhota’” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville.
1995: “Santiago Against the Spaniards,” New England Conference on Latin American Studies, Dartmouth, New Hampshire.
1994: “Arranging Encounters and Making Introductions: Designing the Introductory Latin American Studies Course” Keynote Address, Latin American Studies Curriculum Development Workshop, Heartland Community College, Bloomington IL.
1994: “Cortázar’s Post-1976 Production: Was there Ever a ‘New Woman?’” Midwest Modern Language Association, Chicago.
1994: “Out of the Armchair and into the Struggle: Latin American Social Protest Writers’ and Critics’ Constructs of the Reader.” Mid-America International Conference on Hispanic Literature, Lawrence, Kansas.
1993: “Balancing Act or Weightlifting? Rereading Borges and the Fantastic.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
1993: “Desire Lost in Translation: Bombal’s La última niebla and The House of Mist .” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis
1993: “Technical Challenges of the Fetal Narrator.” Mid-America International Conference on Hispanic Literature, St. Louis.
1992: “Appropriation of Spanish Conquest and Reconquest Imagery in Two 20th Century Latin American Novels.” Mid-America International Conference on Hispanic Literature, Columbia, Missouri.
1992: “Beyond Comprehension Questions: Introducing Foreign Language Students to Literature.” American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages, Chicago.
1992: “Giving Voice to the Body under Torture: Literary Representation of Survival and Resistance.” Midwest Modern Language Association, St. Louis.
1992: “Language, Culture and the Literary Text.” Modern Language Association, New York.
1991: “Beyond the Teacher’s Red Pen: A Follow-Up”, Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Indianapolis.
1991: “Recognizing our Students’ Cultural Diversity: How and Why.” Illinois Council on Teaching Foreign Languages. St. Charles.
1990: “Beyond the Teacher’s Red Pen: Teaching Students to See and Correct their own Mistakes in Foreign Language Composition.” Illinois Council on Teaching Foreign Languages, Chicago.
1990: “Embryonic Protagonists in Ariel Dorfman’s La última canción de Manuel Sendero and Carlos Fuentes’ Cristóbal Nonato .” Illinois Council on Latin American Studies, Urbana.
1990: “Strategies of Mediation in Testimonial Literature.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Kansas City.
1990: “Teaching Cela’s Pascual Duarte.” Modern Language Association, Chicago.
1990: “The Regionalist, the Cosmopolitan and the Canon.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Kansas City.
1989: “Indigenismo and the Documentary Mode.” Midwest Modern Language Association, Minneapolis.
1989: “Language Teaching and the Scientific Method.” Illinois Council on Teaching Foreign Languages, Normal.
1988: “The Role of Situational Activities in a Proficiency-Oriented Curriculum.” Illinois Council on Teaching Foreign Languages, Aurora.
1987: “Enhancing Student Attitudes toward Foreign Language by Teaching Cultural Empathy: A Simulation.” Illinois Foreign Language Teachers’ Association, Peoria.
1985: “Broadening the Appeal of Foreign Language through Situational Spanish.” Illinois Foreign Language Teachers’ Association, Chicago.