Rate My Professor Maria Blanco-Arnejo

Maria D. Blanco-Arnejo serves as Professor of Spanish and Co-Chair of the Department of Spanish at Willamette University. She holds a Licenciatura in Hispanic Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Affiliated with the Spanish, Latin American Studies, and International Studies departments, she plays a key role in fostering interdisciplinary learning and cultural understanding through her teaching and administrative leadership. Professor Blanco-Arnejo is recognized as a dedicated educator in Spanish and Latin American studies, with a commitment to enhancing language education and cross-cultural perspectives evident in her mentorship and course offerings.

Her academic contributions include significant scholarly work in Spanish literature. She authored La novela lúdica experimental de Julio Cortázar, published in 1996 by Editorial Pliegos in Madrid. In 1989, she co-authored 'Dos documentos cervantinos' in Cervantes, volume 9, presenting a description, provenance explanation, and edition of two documents related to Cervantes. She delivered presentations such as 'Las Novelas amorosas y ejemplares de María de Zayas: Hacia una redefinición del lector cómplice' at a conference of the Asociación de Escritoras de España y las Américas, and 'La intertextualidad en La vida secreta de las palabras de Isabel Coixet' at the 66th Annual Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention in Boulder, Colorado, in 2012. Additionally, she co-authored 'Found in translation: how the Spanish 365 students taught Bart Simpson Spanish in a technology-enhanced language classroom' with N. Shevchenko in 2005, and contributed a 2003 article on Freud's Uncanny in Julio Cortázar's 'Casa Tomada,' as well as a review of Christina Duplá's La voz testimonial en Montserrat Roig. Professor Blanco-Arnejo mentors students effectively, sponsoring projects like Yocelin Aranda-Garcia's College Colloquium research on social commentary in film adaptations of Frankenstein. She teaches courses including SPAN 399 Spanish Short Stories and colloquia on cinematic adaptations, enriching students' engagement with Spanish language, literature, and film.