Dr. Isabel Jaén is Professor of Spanish at Portland State University, where she teaches literature, film, and cognition. She holds PhDs from Purdue University and the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Her research fields include early modern literature and psychology, cognitive literary studies, contemporary literature and film, historical memory, women studies, migration, and transatlantic studies.
Dr. Jaén is co-director of Cine-Lit (the International Conference on Film and Literature organized in conjunction with the Portland International Film Festival) and co-president of the Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies Association (LALISA). She is also the USA/North America representative for the Commission on Science and Literature (CoSciLit) of the Division of the History of Science and Technology (DHST) within the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST). She is a former executive member (2008-2012, chair in 2011) of the Division for Cognitive Approaches to Literature at the Modern Language Association (MLA) and a former member of the Purdue Cognitive Literary Studies Steering Committee (2008-2010). Dr. Jaén also co-founded and co-directed (2005-2015) the Literary Theory, Cognition, and the Brain Working Group at the Whitney Humanities Center in Yale University.
She joined Portland State University in 2010.
Books:
Cervantes and the Early Modern Mind (Routledge, 2021)
Self, Other, and Context in Early Modern Spain (Juan de la Cuesta, 2017)
Cognitive Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Literature (Oxford UP, 2016)
Cognitive Literary Studies (U of Texas P, 2012)
Épocas y avances (Yale UP, 2007)
Links to Recent Work:
PDXScholar
ResearchGate
ACADEMIA
Courses Taught at Portland State U:
SPAN 554 Literature, Film, and Cognition. Graduate Seminar. This seminar is offered in connection to the International Conference on Film and Literature Cine-Lit. It provides students the opportunity to present their research at the conference and interact with the invited scholars and filmmakers.
SPAN 553 Don Quixote and Cognition. Graduate Seminar.
SPAN 553 Cervantes and the Mind. Graduate Seminar.
SPAN 552 Drama and Cognition in Golden Age Spain. Graduate Seminar.
SPAN 534/434 Early Modern Mind and Literature. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 534/434 Cervantes. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 534/434 Love, Sex, and Death. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 530/430 Empathy and the Spanish Civil War. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 523/423 Early Modern Mind. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 523/423 Empathy in Early Modern Spain. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 523/423U Passions and Emotions in Spanish Golden Age Poetry. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 522/422 Cognition in Golden Age Spain. Upper Division / Graduate course.
SPAN 521/421 Empathy and Historical Memory. Upper Division / Graduate course.
Portland State U Governance:
Faculty Senator (2011-14, 2015-18, 2021-24)
Advisory Council (2021-23)
Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research Ad-Hoc Committee Chair (2018-20)
Senate Presiding Officer (2019-20)