Faculty Profile for Dr. Catherine M Jaffe

Dr. Catherine M Jaffe
Professor — Dept of World Languages & Literatures
CENT 145
phone: (512) 245-2492
Biography Section
Biography and Education
Catherine M. Jaffe, Professor of Spanish literature, is a specialist in modern Spanish and comparative literature, with a focus on 18th-century women writers and the Enlightenment.Jaffe co-authored María Lorenza de los Ríos, marquesa de Fuerte-Híjar: Vida y obra de una escritora del Siglo de las Luces (2019). She is coeditor of Society Women and Enlightened Charity in Spain: The Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, 1787-1823 (2022), Eve’s Enlightenment: Women’s Experience in Spain and Spanish America, 1726-1831 (2009) and The Routledge Companion to the Hispanic Enlightenment (2020). Jaffe has held research awards from the Madrid Institute for Advanced Study (Fellow 2019-20), the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Women’s Caucus of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the Fulbright Commission, and Spain’s Ministry of Culture. She is a member of the Spanish research projects BIESES, Bibliografía de Escritoras Españolas (2020-2023) and MEMSTORIA (Las barricadas del recuerdo. Historia y memoria de la era de las revoluciones en España e Hispanoamérica (1776-1848).
Jaffe served as president and Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Ibero-American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies for six years. She served on the Executive Committee of the 18th-19th-Century Spanish and Iberian Literature Forum of the Modern Languages Association (2018-2022). She is a member of the Executive Board of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (2020-2023). Jaffe served on the editorial board of Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture and she currently serves on the editorial boards of the monograph series Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment and the journals Dieciocho: Hispanic Enlightenment, Revista de escritoras ibéricas (UNED), and Anales de Literatura Española (Universidad de Alicante).
Jaffe holds a B.A. in Honors English from Georgetown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago.
Teaching Interests
Spanish novel, poetry, and culture; Don Quijote; interdisciplinary humanitiesResearch Interests
18th-21st-century Spanish literature; women writers; the Enlightenment; quixotism; translation; gender and readingSelected Scholarly/Creative Work
- Martin, C. F. (n.d.). Instrumentalizing the Black Legend, or: How Don Quixote’s Dis/Enchantment Set the French Enlightenment in Motion. In C. M. Jaffe & K. Stolley (Eds.), The Black Legend of Spain and its Empire in the Eighteenth Century: Constructing National Identities. United Kingdom: Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment.
- Jaffe, C. M., & Martín-Valdepeñas Yagüe, E. (2022). RECUPERAR UN RETRATO PERDIDO: JOSEFA MÓNICA FÉRNANDEZ DE ALVARADO Y LEZO, MARQUESA DE ESPEJA (1765-1826), TRADUCTORA DE ZANOTTI, CONDILLAC Y ERASMUS DARWIN. Cuadernos de Estudios Del Siglo XVIII, 32, 271–308. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.17811/cesxviii.32.2022.271-308
- Jaffe, C. M., & Martín-Valdepeñas, E. (Eds.). (2022). Society Women and Enlightened Charity in Spain: La Junta de Damas de Honor y Mérito, 1781-1823. Baton Rouge, LA, USA: Louisiana State University Press. Retrieved from https://lsupress.org/books/detail/society-women-and-enlightened-charity-in-spain/
- Jaffe, C. M., Lewis, E., & Bolufer, M. (Eds.). (2020). Routledge Companion to The Hispanic Enlightenment. London and New York, U.K. and U.S.A.: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-the-Hispanic-Enlightenment/Lewis-Peruga-Jaffe/p/book/9781138747791
- Jaffe, C. M., & Martín-Valdepeñas Yagüe, E. (2019). María Lorenza de los Ríos, marquesa de Fuerte-Híjar: vida y obra de una escritora del siglo de las Luces. Madrid, Frankfurt, Spain, Germany: Iberoamericana Vervuert. Retrieved from https://www.iberoamericana-vervuert.es/FichaLibro.aspx?P1=152916
Selected Awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Liberal Arts. 2022
- Award / Honor Recipient: Excellence in Research and Sponsored Programs Significant Achievement Award in Program or Center, College of Liberal Arts. 2020 - August 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: College of Liberal Arts College Golden Apple Achievement Award for Excellence in Scholarly/Creative, College of Liberal Arts. 2019
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award for Excellence in Service, College of Liberal Arts Golden Apple, College of Liberal Arts. 2015
- Award / Honor Recipient: Delta of the District of Columbia, Phi Beta Kappa. 1980
Selected Grants
- Jaffe, Catherine M. "An Edition, Study, and Translation of the Collected Works of María Lorenza de los Ríos, Marquesa de Fuerte-Híjar (1761-1821), with Biographical Essay.", $7246. (Funded: 2012). Grant.
- Jaffe, Catherine M. Research Enhancement Grant"Eighteenth-Century Spanish Conduct Literature for Women", $6500. (Funded: 2006). Grant.
- Jaffe, Catherine M (Principal). Matching grant from Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, $2000. (Funded: March 2006). Grant.
- Jaffe, Catherine M. Historia de la Junta de Damas, Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports, Hispanex Program, $2875. (Funded: October 2018 - October 2019). Grant.
- Jaffe, Catherine M (Supporting), Calvo Maturana, Antonio (Principal). El humor y su sentido: discursos e imágenes de lo risible desde la Ilustración hasta hoy, Universidad de Málaga, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competividad, Spain, $55000. (Funded: January 2018 - December 2020). Grant.
Selected Service Activities
Editorial Review Board Member
Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment
January 2018-Present
President
Chapter 325, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
May 2017-Present
Editorial Review Board Member
Dieciocho: Hispanic Enlightenment
June 2016-Present
Member
University Research Enhancement Committee
August 2020-2023
Member
Executive Board American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
July 2020-July 2023