Oscar Ruiz Hernandez

Oscar Ruiz Hernandez, Ph.D.

Visiting Lecturer in Spanish

College
Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Department
World Languages and Cultures
Phone
978-934-4293
Office
O'Leary Library 515

Expertise

Spanish language & culture, 18-19th C. Spanish literature, staging, costumbrismo, utopia, labor & the marginalized, actor.

Research Interests

Ruiz Hernandez, as a scholar of 18th and 19th c. Spanish peninsular literary and cultural production, draws on literary criticism and historiography to highlight the roles of marginalized communities, social mobility, and gender movements in the Iberian Peninsula. In close connection with the portrayal of national identities, he analyzed the political satires in 19th c. Spanish Costumbrismo in his article "«El patriota» de Ignacio de Castilla: la influencia de los artículos políticos de Larra en un autor costumbrista menor," published by Letras Hispanas in 2019. By attending to these understudied groups and perspectives, his current project, tentatively titled "Crossings: Identity, Work, and Social Mobility in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Theater," offers a new way of understanding the broader social changes that characterized this nation-forming period in Spain.

Biosketch

Oscar Ruiz Hernandez is a Spanish instructor, literary critic, essayist, and actor. He obtained a B.A. in Spanish Philology and a M.A. in Pedagogy from University of Valladolid, Spain. In the US, he earned his Ph.D. in Spanish from University of Virginia in 2020.

Selected Publications

"Rodolfo Usigli, El gesticulador." In Historia de un escenario: 40 años de teatro en español en la Universidad de Virginia. Edited by Fernando Operé, and Fernando Valverde. Valparaíso USA and Sonámbulos Editions, 2020, pp. 265-277. 

"El Patriota de Ignacio de Castilla: la influencia de los artículos políticos de Larra en un autor costumbrista menor." Letras Hispanas: Revista de Literatura y Cultura, vol. 15, 2019, pp. 121-138.

Selected Artistic and Professional Performances and Exhibits

University of Virginia (2015-2021)
Organizer, Una conversación con Fernando Valverde (April 2021)
(Coordinator of a discussion forum with laureate poet and guest speaker, Fernando Valverde, Visiting Distinguished Professor at UVa, participating the students in my course SPAN 3410 and community members)
Co-organizer, Tertulia (Fall 2020-Spring 2021)
(Spanish-language weekly meetups for UVa students, faculty, staff and community members)
Advisor for Spanish Majors (Fall 2020-2021)
Member, Sigma Delta Pi (2019-present)
(National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society)
Member, UVa Spanish Theater Group (2015-2021)
(Performs Spanish-language plays for the Charlottesville community)
University of Valladolid, Spain (2013-2014)
Aid to Assistant Editor. Academic journal Castilla. Estudios de Literatura.

Selected Contracts, Fellowships, Grants and Sponsored Research

Charles Gordon Reid Travel Fellowship, 2019
Departmental travel stipend to conduct research in Madrid
Charles Killian Woltz Summer Language Study Fellowship, 2018
Departmental travel stipend to enhance the proficiency in French at Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Premio Extraordinario de Fin de Carrera, 2014
Outstanding End of Degree Award for academic excellence in Humanities at University of Valladolid, Spain
Beca de Colaboración en Tareas de Investigación, 2013-2014
Fellowship for Students at University Departments for the Purpose of Research, University of Valladolid, Spain