Faculty CV 2007

John A. Ochoa

211 Burrowes Building                                                                                                            (preferred)
The Pennsylvania State University                                                                                          566 Cedar Avenue
University Park, PA 16802                                                                                                       Hershey, PA
jao13@psu.edu                                                                                                                       (717) 520-1262

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Associate Professor, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese and Department of Comparative Literature, Penn State University (2006-current)
Associate Professor, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of California, Riverside (2005-2006)
Assistant Professor, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of California, Riverside (1999-2005)
Acting Assistant Professor, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of California, Riverside (1998-99)

EDUCATION
Ph.D. Department of Comparative Literature, Yale University (May, 1999)
A.B. Independent Major ("Literary Theory"), with Honors, Vassar College, (May, 1990)      
Studies at the Università per stranieri, Siena, Italy; Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain; Université de Paris (VII), France

TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Mexican intellectual and cultural history and Mexican national identity.
Colonial Latin American literature (particularly historians of the Conquest, travel literature, intellectuals and Independence).
Literature of the Americas, North and South (especially the "Americanization" of the picaresque)
The relationship between nationalism and aesthetics, as well as anthropological and psychoanalytic approaches to literature.

PUBLICATIONS
BOOK:
The Uses of Failure in Mexican Literature and Identity (University of Texas Press, 2004). Reviewed in Southwest Book Views Summer 2005; Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 39 (3): 590-591 Oct. 2005; Hispania 88 (3): 502-503 Sep. 2005. Chasqui 35 (1): 163-164 May 2006.

EDITED BOOK:
Guillermo Gómez-Peña. Bitácora del cruce. Edited, with an Introduction and Research Guide by John Ochoa (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2006. (264pp)

CHAPTERS IN EDITED BOOKS:
(Forthcoming) "Sor Juana, Food and the Life of The Mind" in Approaches to Teaching Sor Juana. Edited by Emilie L. Bergmann and Stacey Schlau (Modern Language Association). (pp. 324-337)
“Los finales del fin, y otros ejercicios de encierro” in Agustín Yánez, una vida literaria. Edited by Rafael Olea Franco (El Colegio de México, 2007) (pp. 75-90)
"Paradoxical Citizenship: Said’s Foucault, or the Places of the Critic" in Pardoxical Citizenship. Edited by Silvia Nagy-Zekmi (Lexington Books, 2006) (pp. 49-56)
"Bordering on Madness: The Licenciado Vidriera, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and The Performance of Liminality" in Foucault and Latin America: Appropriations and Deployments of Discursive Analysis. Edited by Benigno L. Trigo (Routledge, 2002). (pp83-102)
With Carlos Morales Alonso and Juan Gutierrez Rexach. "Dos proyectos de revolución social en la literatura.” Revolución, dignidad y solidaridad: actas del Congreso UNIV-89 (Universidad Complutense,1989).

ARTICLES:
"Las fronteras de Guillermo-Gómez Peña." Insula (Madrid, Spain), July-August 2002. (Invited, Nonreferreed Journal)
"José Vasconcelos, Compromised Utopianism and the Necessity of Failure." Revista de Estudios hispánicos 36, Winter 2002. (Peer reviewed)
"The Paper Warrior: Education, Independence, and Bernal Díaz's War to Stop Time." MLN 114.2, March 1999. (Peer Reviewed)

TRANSLATION:
(Forthcoming) Carlos Fuentes, "William Faulkner: The Novel as Tragedy" in Baroque New Worlds. Edited by Lois Parkinson Zamora and Monika Kaup (Duke University Press, Expected 2006). (29 pp MS).

HONORS AND AWARDS
University of California Faculty Development Award (Fall 2004).
Resident Fellow, Research Group on "Cultural Politics," Center for Ideas and Society, University of California Riverside (Winter Quarter 2002).
University of California Regents' Faculty Fellowship (Fall 2002).
Ford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship (Academic year 2000-2001).
University Dissertation Fellowship (1997) and Dorothy Danforth Compton Fellowship (1991-1995), Yale University.

LECTURES
“American Picaresques, North and South” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference, Puebla Mexico, April 22, 2007.
"Al filo del agua y el performance del libre albedrío." Conference on "La construcción de la identidad mexicana," UC Irvine, April 28, 2005.
"Al filo del agua, novela rusa." Conference on Agustín Yáñez, Colegio de México, Mexico City, November 17, 2004.
"The Uses of Failure in Mexican Cultural Discourse." Conference on "México en el mundo," UC Irvine, April 30, 2004.
"The True History of The Conquest of New Spain and Other Struggles for Autonomy." Invited lecture, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Villanova University, January 28, 2004.
"The Madness of King Vasconcelos." Latin American Studies Association Conference, Dallas, March 29, 2003.
"Making It Relevant: Teaching Colonial Literature to Undergraduates and Having Them Care." Modern Language Association Conference, New York, December 30, 2002.
"The Cracks in the Baroque: Carlos Fuentes' Cambio de Piel and the Risks of Collapse." American Comparative Literature Association Conference, San Juan Puerto Rico, April 12, 2002.
"Lo crudo y lo cocido en Reyes, Paz, y Esquivel: la cocina y la conciencia de clase en la cultura hegemónica mexicana." Congreso de literaturas hispánicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica, Lima Peru March 28, 2002.
"Plagiarism and Autonomy in Bernal Díaz del Castillo." Conference on “La crítica y el arte en México," UC Irvine, May 4, 2001.
"Vasconcelos, Compromised Utopianism and the Necessity of Failure." Conference on "Nación y visiones multidisciplinarias," UC Irvine, May 26, 2000.
"The Limits of Responsibility." Latin American Studies Association Conference, Miami, March 18, 2000.
"Alexander von Humboldt's Work on the Americas and the Limits of Vision." Modern Language Association Conference, San Francisco, December 27, 1998.
"Education, Liminality and the War to Stop Time in Díaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera." Conference on "Re-Covering the Past," SUNY-Binghamton, April 18, 1998. 
"Education and Entropy in Bernal Díaz del Castillo's Historia verdadera." Modern Language Association Conference, Toronto, December 27, 1997.
"Remember the City: Carlos Fuentes' Agua quemada and the Language of Loss." Conference on "The City and the Text,” Yale University, February 25, 1995.

REVIEWS
A cierta altura by María Sanz, reviewed in Alaluz 331.1-2, Spring/Fall 1999.
The Politics of Philology: Alfonso Reyes and the Invention of the Latin American Literary Tradition by Robert T. Conn reviewed in MLN 120.2 (2005) 497-499. 

GRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT AT UC RIVERSIDE 
AT PENN STATE
The Uses of Mexico (Survey of Mexican Literature and Culture)

AT UC RIVERSIDE
Criticism and Critical Documentation (A Historical Introduction to Critical Theory)
Hispanic Civilization: Colonial Literature and Culture (twice)
The Negative Sublime in the Americas (a "Literature of the Americas" course cross-listed with the English Department)
American Exceptionalisms (another "Literature of the Americas" course)

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES TAUGHT
AT PENN STATE
Survey of Latin American Literature From Discovery to 1850
Varieties of Latino Experience (Latino Studies/Comparative Literature)
Introduction to Hispanic Literature

AT UC RIVERSIDE
Survey of Latin American Literature From Discovery to 1850
Survey of Spanish Literature to 1700
Myths of Creation
Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature
Introduction to Literary Analysis
Third-Year Grammar and Composition
Spanish for the Native Speaker (Third Year Spanish)

UNIVERSITY SERVICE
PENN STATE
Department:
Member of Dissertation Committee for Valbona Zylo. PhD Exam Comittees for Luis Fernandez-Portero, Montserrat Mores Martínez (Spanish, Italian and Portuguese) Rhett McNeill (Comparative Literature). MA Exam Comittees for Rossy Bellorin, José Alvarez.
Member, Activities Committee, Graduate Committee, Promotion and Tenure Committee. (2006-2007)

College:
Head Search Committee for the Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. (2006-2007)
Latino/a Studies Committee. (2006-2007)

UC RIVERSIDE
Department:
Faculty Mentor to the 50-member undergraduate majors, assisting students with play production, social and cultural activities, career guidance (1998-2000). 
Graduate Advisor for the Department of Hispanic Studies, coordinating the Graduate Program, including student advising and Master's examinations, recruitment efforts and processing MA and Ph.D. applications (1999).
Coordinator for third-year language courses for both native and non-native speakers (1998-2000).
Member of Ph.D. Dissertation and Exam committees for Jasleen Kohli, Ana Mercedes Patiño, Kevin Guerrieri, Martín Camps, Traci Roberts, Aroldo Solórzano, Matthew Dean, Gabriela García, Mark Anderson (Department of Hispanic Studies, UCR); Ph.D. Exam committees for Dow Robbins, Kendall Smith, Cara Cardinale, Jasmine Payne (English Department, UCR). MA Thesis Committee for Laura Leaper, (History of Art, UCR); numerous MA exam committees (Department of Hispanic Studies, UCR).
Member of Search Committees for Assistant Professor (Winter 2003); Senior Professor (Winter 2004).

University:
Chancellor’s Taskforce on The Child Development Center (2005).
Executive Committee, College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences, UC Riverside (2003-2005). Chair, Subcommittee on Teaching Evaluations (2004-2005).
UC Riverside Senate Committee on Preparatory Education (2000-2003); Acting Chair (Spring 2001).
Committee for Latin American Studies (2002-present).

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

Manuscript evaluator for Penn State University Press for book manuscript, Territories of History by Sara Beckjord.
Member, Organizational Committee for conference on Cultural Borders of Spain and Latin America (Feb 21-27, 1999).  Chaired panel, introduced plenary speakers, assisted in logistics for conference.
Consulting Faculty, Latin American Short Title Catalogue Project, Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (UCR).
Member of Planning Committee, Ford Foundation Fellows' Conference, Ford Foundation, Washington D.C. (2001).
Discussant for panel "Madness and the Marketplace," Latin American Studies Association Conference, Dallas, March 29, 2003.

LANGUAGES
Native fluency in English and Spanish
Excellent speaking and reading knowledge of French and Italian
Reading knowledge of Latin and Portuguese

REFERENCES
Thomas Scanlon, University of California, Riverside (former Chair)
Andrew K. Bush, Vassar College
Roberto González-Echevarría, Yale University
Aníbal González-Pérez, Yale University
Lois Parkinson Zamora, University of Houston