Victoria Burrus
I did my graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, attracted there by its strong tradition of medieval studies. In addition to gaining experience as a teaching assistant, I was able to work as a project assistant on the Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language Project of the Seminary of Medieval Spanish Studies. After receiving the Ph.D. in 1985, I spent a year working full-time on the Dictionary Project before coming to Vanderbilt in 1986. This was essential hands-on training in philology that has shaped the course of my research. My research interests revolve mainly around fifteenth-century topics, cancionero poetry and La Celestina in particular, although I am also interested in the medieval epic and the Libro de buen amor, another masterpiece of Spanish literature. My next research project will have to do with the changing concept of nobility in fifteenth-century Spain, focusing especially on the works of Diego de Valera.
Although my specialty is medieval literature, which I teach at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, I also regularly teach Spanish Civilization and Introduction to Spanish and Spanish-American Literature, as well as Intermediate Composition. In addition to being the adviser for Sigma Delta Pi, the Spanish honorary society, I have also done pre-major advising, and since Fall 1996 I have been the director of undergraduate studies. Because I have also directed Vanderbilt's undergraduate program at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 1988-89 and again 1994-95 through Fall 1995, I advise prospective participants about studying abroad.