Ohio Wesleyan Professor Elected to Hispanic Classical Theater Board
Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas, Ph.D., to Serve Three-Year Term with International Association
DELAWARE, Ohio – She has helped to bring two Spanish Film Festivals to Ohio Wesleyan University, traveled to Spain with students to research the enduring impact of Hispanic Classical Theater, brought a traveling theater production to the university, and worked with honors students to adapt and perform plays from the Spanish Golden Age.
And Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas is beginning 2017 with a new role that will help her continue to enrich academic and cultural opportunities for her students and colleagues.
Nieto-Cuebas, Ph.D., an assistant professor of modern foreign languages since 2011, has been elected to serve a three-year renewable term on the Board of Directors of The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater (AHCT). The international association works to promote and foster greater appreciation for Spain’s classical drama in production.
“I’m honored to serve on the board of The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater because it will let me work more directly on academic projects and other initiatives aimed at finding innovative approaches for researching, disseminating, and teaching Hispanic Classical Theater,” Nieto-Cuebas said. “AHCT already has allowed me to connect with numerous specialists in my field, leading to collaborative research projects and creating many opportunities for my students.”
For example, Nieto-Cuebas said, when she and two students traveled to Spain as part of The OWU Connection to research the relevance of Hispanic Classical Theater today, including the economic impact of the International Festival of Classical Theater in Almagro, she relied on AHCT colleagues to help the group access experts to interview.
And when Nieto-Cuebas wanted to bring the Spanish theater company Morfeo Teatro to campus to perform Miguel de Cervantes’ “El Coloquio de los Perros” (“The Dialogue of the Dogs”), her AHCT knowledge and connections helped to make it happen.
“I thought it was important for my students to get to see a live performance of one of the texts read in class and to talk to theater professionals with a distinctive and artistic take on Spanish Theater,” she said.
The performance ultimately became part of a symposium titled “Reimagining the Spanish Comedia in the Transmedia Age,” created in collaboration with Francisco López-Martín, Ph.D., of Denison University, and funded by an Ohio Five Mellon Language Grant. The symposium featured participation by several AHCT-member scholars and a keynote address by the association’s president, Susan Paun de García, Ph.D.
“I’m now collaborating with other AHCT colleagues on several projects that explore how to teach this genre effectively to college students,” Nieto-Cuebas said. “This increase level of engagement has been invaluable to my teaching by helping me develop projects that have proven successful in teaching students the complexities of the Spanish comedia. … In the near future, I hope to be able to take some students to the annual AHCT conference and include them in one of my presentations.”
Nieto-Cuebas began her term on the AHCT Board of Directors on Jan. 1. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, her master’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, and her doctoral degree in Hispanic literature from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Her teaching and research interests include contemporary adaptations and productions of Spanish baroque theater, early modern Spanish and colonial Latin American women writers, as well as topics on witchcraft and magic in early modern Spanish literature and culture. She also is the adviser of VIVA Latinx, OWU’s Latin American student group. Learn more about Nieto-Cuebas and Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages at www.owu.edu/mfl.
About The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater
Charted in 1984, The Association for Hispanic Classical Theater not only promotes greater appreciation for Spain’s classical drama in production, it also and maintains a rare collection of Spanish Renaissance and Baroque plays on film and videotape that serves as a resource for scholars, theatrical companies, teachers, and the general public. The nonprofit organization counts among its members literary scholars, theatrical directors and producers, teachers, and other aficionados of Spain’s Golden Age of Theater. Learn more at www.wordpress.comedias.org.
About Ohio Wesleyan University
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers nearly 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.