Julia Domínguez
Julia Domínguez
Director of the Center for Global and Area Studies (CGAS)
Office:107 Jastak-Burgess Hall
Resources and Links
Biography
Julia Domínguez is a professor of Spanish, director of the Center for Global and Area Studies and a faculty affairs fellow at the University of Delaware. During the 2026–2027 academic year, she is also a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wolf Humanities Center.
Her research focuses on early modern Spanish literature, particularly Cervantes and the rise of science in the Renaissance. She examines how changing scientific and philosophical discourses and new technologies shaped literary representations of the individual's relationship to the body, mind and environment. Her work also explores memory and the arts of memory, including Renaissance memory palaces.
She is the author of Quixotic Memories: Cervantes and Memory in Early Modern Spain (University of Toronto Press, 2022), which examines the complexity of memory's cultural significance through Cervantes' work and the many spaces memory occupied in early modern Spain. Her publications also include the essay collection Cervantes in Perspective (Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2012) and the co-edited volume Hispanic Studies in Honor of Robert L. Fiore. She has published numerous articles on early modern Spanish literature, memory studies, science fiction, film and Cervantes.
Her latest book, Mental Libraries: The Reception of the Arts of Memory in Literature and Culture (Routledge, 2025), traces the enduring legacy and transformation of mnemonic systems from classical antiquity through the early modern period. Developed in collaboration with the Society of Mnemonic Studies, this interdisciplinary volume examines how memory systems persisted and evolved in the premodern world.
Her current projects include In the Name of Mnemosyne, an edited volume on memory in the early modern Hispanic world, and Mnemonic Marvels: The Arts of Memory in Early Modern Spain and Latin America. The latter explores the historical significance of Renaissance memory palaces and their connections to contemporary debates about artificial intelligence, knowledge production, information manipulation and the presentation of alternative realities.
Domínguez received the Biruté Ciplijauskaité Research Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Institute for Research in the Humanities for 2021–2022. In 2020, she received the University Teacher Award from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. She serves on the association's board of directors for the 2024–2027 term.
She is a member of the University of Delaware Press editorial board and general co-editor of its series The Early Modern Exchange. She also serves on the Delaware Humanities board of directors.
Honors and Awards
- Faculty Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wolf Humanities Center (2026-2027)
- Series General co-editor, The Early Modern Exchange, UD Press (2025-present)
- Editorial Board of the University of Delaware Press (2024-present)
- Board of Directors of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) College/University Representative (2024-2027).
- Biruté Ciplijauskaité Research Fellow, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2021-2022).
- AATSP American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese - College/University Teacher of the Year (2020)
- ISU Exemplary Faculty Mentor (2022)
- Cassling Innovation Award, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2020)
Photo Credit: Jason Varney
Publications
Books
- In the Name of Mnemosyne. Remembering in Early Modern Hispanic Culture. Edited by Julia Domínguez. Collection of essays by leading scholars in memory studies and early modern Hispanic literature. In progress.
- Mnemonic Marvels: The Arts of Memory in Early Modern Spain and Latin America. In progress.
- Mental Libraries: The Reception of the Arts of Memory in Literature and Culture. Ed. Julia Domínguez. Routledge, 2025.
- Quixotic Memories: Cervantes and the Culture of Memory in Early Modern Spain. University of Toronto Press, 2022
- Cervantes in Perspective. Ed. Julia Domínguez. Madrid: Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2013.
- Studies in Golden Age Literature in Honor of Robert L. Fiore. Ed. Julia Domínguez-Castellano and Chad M. Gasta. Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2009.
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Bridging Cultures and Classrooms
July 11, 2025 | Written by Language MagazineWe’re proud to share that program director Julia Domínguez and colleague Basia Moltchanov have coauthored an article in Language Magazine titled “Bridging Cultures and Classrooms: Intercultural Competence Through Study Abroad.” -
Mental Libraries: The Reception of the Arts of Memory in Literature and Culture
June 06, 2025 | Written by CAS Communication StaffExploring the enduring legacy of mnemonic systems across literature, visual arts, pedagogy and cultural production. -
The power of three
April 01, 2025 | Written by Margo McDonoughTriple major gives UD junior a competitive edge
