INTRODUCTION
Fall 2024 Office Hours
T 3-4 pm, W 11 am-12 pm, R 9-10 am
Other hours by appointment.
Email me anytime during the semester, for any reason. I will respond to your email within 24 hours M-F, and within 72 hours on the weekends. I don't have a phone in my office.
Courses Taught in Fall 2024: WLS 3010 / 3090; WLS 1101; 1112-600 (online)
Prof. Irene Jacobsen was born in Córdoba, Argentina, to parents who loved to read. Her first exposure to a foreign language occurred in kindergarten (Spanish in the morning, German in the afternoon). At age seven she moved to Montreal, Canada, where her father worked as a U.N. translator, thus bringing forth her second exposure to a foreign language, French. After graduation from secondary school, following the wise advice of her parents, she switched to the English school system and earned a B.A. in Sociology from McGill University (1989). Eventually she followed in her mother's footsteps and decided to study Spanish and Latin American literature, which led to a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (2002). In 2007 her linguistic odyssey came full circle when she married a native from Germany, an event that reignited her interest in German.
Prof. Jacobsen's frequently taught courses include Beginning Spanish I (WLS 1101); Spanish for the Health Professions (WLS 1112, online); Medical Spanish for Health Care and Allied Fields (WLS 3012); Spanish Through Latin American Narrative and Film (WLS 3010 / 3090); and Civilization and Culture of Spanish America (WLS 4320).
For a decade, Prof. Jacobsen's conference papers and articles focused on issues common to women writers, such as censorship, and the textual strategies they imagined to circumvent them. In the past few years the focus of her research shifted towards the intersection of the picaresque (an early modern Spanish literary genre) novel with Tango lyrics (a subgenre of Argentine poetry). For this project she is busy translating numerous Tango-songs from the River Plate variety of Spanish (peppered with lunfardo, a local lexicon) to standard English. In 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2019 she lectured on the Tango at eight different universities (including in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Medellín, Colombia; and Lima, Peru).
My EIU Story
Guest Lectures (Partial List)
"La lírica del tango." Graduate Program in Spanish-American Literature (Posgrado en Literatura Hispanoamericana) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru, 2019.
"My Tango Project." Final Fridays, Center for the Humanities and the Faculty Development and Innovation Center, Eastern Illinois University. Top of the Roc, Charleston, Illinois, 2018.
“La Malinche.” Third entry in a faculty Pecha Kucha (fast chat) format panel entitled: “Torqued by History: Appropriating a Woman’s Images.” A Women’s History and Awareness Month Event. Eastern Illinois University, 2013.
“Brief Survey of Spanish Literature. Two Periods: Spanish Realism and the Generation of 1927.” History 369 (undergraduate), taught by Nils Jacobsen. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011.
“El género picaresco en la obra de Roberto J. Payró.” Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Económicas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, sede Medellín, Medellín, Colombia, 2010.
“No Honor, no Shame: Picaresque Traces in the Tango.” Brownbag Lecture Series, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.
“Literatura y política en América Latina en el siglo XIX.” Centro de Estudios Históricos Regionales de Ayacucho and Centro Loyola Ayacucho, Ayacucho, Peru, 2008.
“The Tango: A Socio-Historical View of the Dance, the People, the Mystery.” Global Engagements Lecture and Performance Series of the College of Liberal Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005.
Guest Teaching Assignment
“The Poetry and Movement of Tango: A Window to Southern Latin America,” CLACS 2017-2nd Educators Summer Workshop (32 Certification Hours), Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, June 2017.
Education & Training
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania—Romance Languages (Spanish), 2002.
M.A., University of Pennsylvania—Romance Languages (Spanish), 1998.
B.A., McGill University—Sociology. McGill University Scholar, Great Distinction, 1989.
Professional History
Professor of Spanish, Department of World Languages and Cultures, Eastern Illinois University. Promotion awarded in April 2021.
Associate Professor of Spanish, Department of Foreign Languages, Eastern Illinois University. 2012-2021.
Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Foreign Languages, Eastern Illinois University, 2007-2012.
Assistant Professor of Spanish, Department of Foreign Languages, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2002-2007.
Part-Time Lecturer in Spanish, Department of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania, 2001-2002.
Teaching Assistant in Spanish, Department of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania, 1996-2001.
Teaching Assistant in Spanish, Department of Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College, 1994-1995.
Conference Presentations
"The Tragedy of the Milonguita: How Tango Shamed Women in the 1920s." Popular Culture Association Conference, New Orleans, 2025 (upcoming).
"Shifting Representations of Women in Tango Songs from the 1920s and 1930s." Popular Culture Association Conference, Chicago, 2024.
"Mano a mano: A Modernist Masterpiece." Popular Culture Association Conference, San Antonio, 2023.
"Creative Contradictions in Tango Music and Dance." Popular Culture Association Conference, Virtual, 2022.
"Tensions in the Tango: Certainties and Paradoxes." Midwest Association of Latin American Studies Conference, Virtual, 2021.
"The Many Faces of Women in Tango-Songs." Popular Culture Association Conference, Philadelphia, April 2020. Postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Virtual, 2021.
“Iconoclasm in the Picaresque and the Tango.” Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014.
“Discépolo´s Cambalache as philosophical poem.” Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2013.
“Madness as Metaphor in Wartime Stories of Love and Death.” 20th Women and Society Conference, Marist College, 2011.
“Pablo o la vida en las pampas: una olvidada precursora del Martín Fierro. Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature, University of Kansas, 2009.
“Two Solitudes: The Pícaro and the Compadrito.” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2009.
“Fantasmas y locura: el género en la temprana literatura fantástica argentina.” 7th International Fantastic Literature Colloquium, Otto-Friedrich- Universität, Bamberg, Germany, 2008.
“Real vs. Substitute Maternity in Juana Manuela Gorriti.” Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, 2008.
“Women and Censorship in Nineteenth-Century Argentina.” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Montreal, Canada, 2007.
“Juana Manuela Gorriti´s ´Tricks of the Weak´.” Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literatures, University of Missouri, Columbia, 2006.
“Globalization and the Tango: The Tango Diaspora.” 5th Annual Expressions of Diversity Conference, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2006.
“Madness as Metaphor in Nineteenth Century Argentine Literature.” Latin American Studies Association Congress, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2006.
“Latino Definitions of Manhood and Womanhood.” 4th Annual Expressions of Diversity Conference, Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005.
“La mujer en la narrativa política del romanticismo argentino.” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Las Vegas, 2004.
“El legado rosista en las ficciones políticas de Juana Manuela Gorriti.” 14th International Conference of the Asociación Internacional de Literatura Femenina Hispánica, Boca Raton, 2003.
“Pablo o la vida en las pampas: primera novela argentina del posrosismo.” 51° Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Santiago, Chile, 2003.
“Los misterios del Plata, primera novela argentina.” 23rd Annual Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Cincinnati, 2003.
“ ‘Nada hay más despiadado para una mujer como su sexo’: la escritora argentina del siglo XIX.” 7th Annual Graduate Romanic Association Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, 2001.
Publications
1. Peer-Reviewed Articles (Partial List)
El destino de la mujer transgresora en tres cuentos con desenlace fantástico de Juana Manuela Gorriti.” Espéculo. Revista de Estudios Literarios 43 (November 2009- February 2010): n.p. URL: www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero43/jmgorriti.html
“El Álbum de Señoritas y la emancipación de la mujer.” Dialogía: Revista de lingüística, literatura y cultura 3.3 (2008): 169-186.
“La mujer en los escritos antirrosistas de Echeverría, Sarmiento y Mármol.” Hispania 89.1 (2006): 13-19.
“Visitación Olías de Cuervo o la dinámica de la envidia.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 78.3 (2001): 323-333.
“Sancho IV: el pecado hecho hombre en La estrella de Sevilla.” Bulletin Hispanique, June 2001: 281-306.
2. Edited Book
Roman Csiliou, Tres detectives. 20 policiales 20. Buenos Aires: Dunken, 2019.
3. Translations
1. Nils Jacobsen, "The War of the Coalición Nacional, 1894-1895: The Transition from Caudillo-Era Civil Warfare to Civil Society Movements." Translated as: "La guerra de la Coalición Nacional, 1894-1895: de las guerras civiles de la etapa caudillista a los movimientos de la sociedad civil." In collaboration with Silvia Escanilla Huerta and Óscar Hidalgo. Tiempo de guerra. Estado, nación y conflicto armado en el Perú, siglos XVII-XIX. Eds. Carmen McEvoy and Alejandro M. Rabinovich. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2018. 441-493.
2. Nils Jacobsen, preface to the Spanish language edition of Mirages of Transition. The Peruvian Altiplano, 1780-1930. Translated as: Ilusiones de la transición. El altiplano peruano, 1780-1930. Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2013. 13-22.
3. Nils Jacobsen, “ ‘Liberalismo tropical:’ The Career of a European Economic Doctrine in Latin America, 1780-1885.” Translated as: “ ‘Liberalismo tropical’: cómo explicar el auge de una doctrina económica europea en América Latina, 1780-1885.” In collaboration with Nathan Clarke. Historia crítica 34 (July-December 2007): 118-147.
4. Other Publications
Essay: “El tango en el aula: mi experiencia en Rochester, Nueva York.” ReVista, Harvard Review of Latin America 7.1 (2007): 15.
Funding & Grants
Awards (Partial List)
2023 John Bratzel Travel Grant, Popular Culture Association.
2022 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences CU Pool Award, Eastern Illinois University.
2019 John Bratzel Travel Grant, Popular Culture Association. Unused because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
2019 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences CU Pool Award, Eastern Illinois University.
2019 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Travel Fund Award, Eastern Illinois University.
2017 Sabbatical Assignment at full salary for Spring 2019, Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Eastern Illinois University.
2009 College of Arts and Humanities Travel Fund Award, Eastern Illinois University.
2007 David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Summer Library Scholarship, Harvard University.
2003/04/05/06 College of Liberal Arts Faculty Research Fund Award, Rochester Institute of Technology.
2005 Summer Visiting Scholar Grant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/ University of Chicago Consortium for Latin American Studies.
2004 College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Committee Award, Rochester Institute of Technology.
Frequently Taught Courses
WLS 4320, Civilization and Culture of Spanish America.
WLS 3010 / 3090, Spanish Through Latin American Narrative and Film.
WLS 3012, Medical Spanish for Health Care and Allied Fields.
WLS 1112-600, Spanish for the Health Professions (online).
WLS 1101, Beginning Spanish I (evening section).
Research & Creative Interests
Wounded Lives: The Poetry of the Tango. This project involves the translation, description and analysis of selected tango lyrics. New translations from Spanish to English are underway, as well as research in the history of 19th and 20th century Argentina, especially the history of immigration. This project touches upon various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. To my knowledge, an English-language history of the tango from the study of its lyrics has not been attempted before.
Professional Affiliations
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese.
Popular Culture Association.