Palmar Álvarez-Blanco

Education & Professional History

Universidad de Valladolid, Licenciada; University of Villanova, MA; University of Colorado (Boulder), PhD

Dr. Palmar Alvarez-Blanco joined the Carleton Spanish Department faculty in 2006.  She is one of the co-founders of the International Association of 21^st Century Spanish Literature and Film (ALCESXXI), where she serves as president. Dr. Alvarez-Blanco’s journey as a scholar engaging the world of arts activism and grassroots movements has deeply informed her own research and teaching practices. These experiences have been a source of constant inspiration for the development of civic engagement projects that connect students with social realities and vice versa. Her teaching portfolio includes Spanish courses as well as advanced seminars in Spanish cultural studies.

Much of her research focuses on the complex historical relation between society, culture and politics, especially in contemporary Spain.

Throughout her career at Carleton, Professor Alvarez-Blanco has continued to explore new ways to grow as a teacher, scholar, and engaged community member. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on Civic engagement, and participatory video, and co-curation of traveling exhibitions in the USA: Welcome to the World and Satirical and Political Graphics in the Modern World. In 2020 professor Alvarez-Blanco was selected for the Mellon Periclean to Faculty Leadership Program to incorporate civic engagement into the curriculum.  This award supported the creation of ‘Radio and News in Spanish,’ an Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) course co-designed and co-taught with community partners Lucy Gonzalez Miron, Tayde Rodriguez, Marlene Rojas and Mar Valdecantos (founders and managers of the Northfield community radio program “El Súper Barrio Latino”). As a Periclean Faculty Leader, Professor Alvarez-Blanco joined a community of scholars dedicated to incorporating civic engagement into the curriculum while empowering students to use their academic knowledge to tackle real-world problems.

In addition to being the architect, curator and creator of the Constellation of the Commons —an audiovisual open-access archive concerning self-managed communities of practice that have emerged over the past decade, spurred on by the exposure of the neoliberal financial sham within the Spanish territory. —, she has coordinated and co-edited and coordinated two collective volumes: Contornos de la narrativa española actual (2000-2010). Un diálogo entre creadores y críticos (2011) y La imaginación hipotecada. Aportaciones al debate sobre la precariedad del presente (2017). A paper version of her latest work In Route with the Commons. Memory and Archive of a Possible Constellation (2017-18-19) can be ordered here.