Diego Baena received his PhD. from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Princeton University in 2020. He also holds an MA from Princeton and a BA in History and Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago. His doctoral dissertation (La literatura y sus pueblos) explores the intersection between popular literacy, various forms of popular media, censorship, and dissident political cultures in nineteenth-century Spain. While one part of Dr. Baena’s research has focused on representations of urban and transatlantic migration and working-class caring economies in the works of Emilia Pardo Bazán and Rosalía de Castro, his more recent interests include: the commemoration of republican and socialist political cultures over time; the history of Spanish feminisms; the relationship between Cuban, Spanish, and Puerto Rican republicanism and the international abolitionist movement; representations of class, race, and revolution in the Spanish-speaking Avant-Garde (with special focus on the works of Federico García Lorca, Langston Hughes, and Luis Buñuel).

Lectures and Scholarly Presentations:

• “‘Nothing more unjust than equality:’ Evaluating Contemporary Debates on Feminist and Democratic Memory in Spain (the case of Emilia Pardo Bazán and Francisco Franco’s Family Residence, the Pazo de Meirás). 46th Annual European Studies Conference, University of Nebraska, Omaha, October 1-2, 2021.
• “Spanish ‘Populisms’ in Historical Perspective: from ‘Utopian’ Demo-socialism to the Anarchist Spring.” Lecture: King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, New York University, March 18, 2021.
• “Plagues and Pharmacology in Historical and Literary Perspective (A Conversation with Santiago Alba Rico).”  Online Event: King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, New York University, February 11, 2021.
• “Revolt in the Time of Cholera.” Invited paid collaboration in undergraduate seminar organized by Germán Labrador Méndez, Narrating Pandemics Now: Princeton University (Autumn 2020).
• “Galdós as ‘Influencer’: Revisiting the Serialized Novel for the Netflix Generation”; part of panel “Teaching Galdós in the Age of Twitter,” NEMLA 51st Annual Convention (Boston University: Boston, MA, March 5-8, 2020).
• “Picking up the Scraps: Anarchy, Popular Literacies, and Shifting Imaginaries of Youth in 19th-Century Spanish ‘Broadsheet’ Literature.” Invited special presentation at 400-level seminar organized by Rafael Sánchez Mateos Paniagua, Princeton University (Spring 2019)
• “Repúblicas letradas y repúblicas des-Amparadas: lectoescritura proletaria, feminismo de régimen y costumbrismo demófobo en La tribuna de Emilia Pardo Bazán (1883)”; III North American Symposium of Galician Studies (University of Colorado: Denver, October 2018).
• “Poéticas de la heteroglosia: costumbrismos y etnologías de la España decimonónica ante la diversidad lingüística y prosódica de un territorio nacional en disputa”; Tercer Congreso Latinoamericano de Glotopolítica (Leibniz Universität: Hannover, October 2017)
• “Subversiones rosalianas: ‘viudas de vivos,’ (sub)alternidad femenina y la problemática de la globalización en la poesía de Rosalía de Castro”; II North American Symposium of Galician Studies (University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, April 2016)

Scholarly Articles and Edited Volumes:

• “‘Seducible’ Souls, ‘Bastard’ Republics: National-Catholic ‘Feminism’ and Fear of a Literate ‘Demos’ in Emilia Pardo Bazán’s La tribuna (1883)”. Galician Language and Culture at the Crossroads: Approaches to Gender, Communication, and Displacement, 1800-Present (Obdulia Castro, Diego Baena, Miriam Sánchez Moreiras and María Rey López eds). Palgrave Macmillan, Forthcoming.
• Editor: Galician Language and Culture at the Crossroads: Approaches to Gender, Communication, and Displacement, 1800-Present (with Obdulia Castro, Miriam Sánchez). Palgrave Macmillan, Forthcoming.

Additional Publications:

• “La risa del bárbaro: lo que Walter Benjamin aun nos puede enseñar sobre cómo lidiar con las catástrofes en la era del distanciamiento físico”. CTXT, July 1, 2020.

• King Juan Carlos I of Spain Postdoctoral Fellow, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, New York University (Spring 2021)
• Post-Graduate Research Associate Merit Fellowship, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Princeton University (Spring and Summer 2020)
• Malcolm S. Forbes Merit Fellowship (Princeton University 2014-2015)
• Phi Beta Kapa (University of Chicago, 2013)
• Dean’s List (University of Chicago, 2009-2013)