Elizabeth Rhodes
Professor Emerita
Elizabeth Rhodes
Ph.D.
Contact
Lyons Hall 307B
Telephone: 617-552-3820
Email: elizabeth.rhodes@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0003-3412-8494
Education
- B.A., Westhampton College, University of Richmond
- M.A., Bryn Mawr College
- Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College
Research Interests
Early modern Spanish literature; theology and religious culture; women’s studies and feminist theory
Professor Rhodes's current research project, titled 'The Age of the Saints"—and featured in the Boston College Magazine—investigates how the lives of the certain saint change over time.
Recent Articles and Book Chapters
"Indecent Theology: Sex and Female Heresy in Counter-Reformation Spain." Renaissance Quarterly 73.3 (2020): 866-96.
"Lope's La dama boba and the Seduction of the Academy." Bulletin of the Comediantes 71.1-2 (2019): 103-17.
"The male body and Catholic piety in Early Modern Spain." Body and Religion 3.2 (2019): 130-49.
“Living with Rodolfo and Cervantes’s ‘La fuerza de la sangre.’” MLN 133.2 (2018): 201-23.
"Ignatius, Women and the Leyenda de los santos." Companion to Ignatius of Loyola Life, Writings, Spirituality. Ed. Robert A. Maryks. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2014. 6-23.
"María de Zayas's St. Beatriz of Hungary." Representing Women’s Authority in the Early Modern World: Struggles, Strategies, and Morality. Eds. Eavan Mary O'Brien and Anthony Lappin. London: Aracne Press, 2013. 93-119.
"Santa Beatriz de Roma / Saint Beatriz of Rome: Edition and Translation from the Leyenda de los santos (Burgos: Juan de Burgos, 1499." http://dlib.bc.edu/islandora/object/bc-ir:100514 [2012]
"Las vidas de Francisco de Borja y las normas del género." Francisco de Borja y su tiempo: Política, religión y cultura en la edad moderna. Ed. Enrique García Hernán and Pilar Ryan. Valencia and Rome: Albatros ediciones and Institutum Historicum Societatis Iesu, 2011. 681-87.
“Teresa de Jesús’s Book and the Reform of the Religious Man in Sixteenth-Century Spain.” Gender, Catholicism and Spirituality. Women and the Roman Catholic Church in Britain and Europe, 1200-1900. Eds. Laurence Lux-Sterritt and Carmen M. Mangion. London: Palgrave, 2010. 68-82.
"Gender in the Night. Juan de la Cruz y Cecilia del Nacimiento." Studies on Women's Lyric Poetry of the Golden Age. Tras el espejo la musa escribe Ed. Julián Olivares. Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2009. 202-17.
"Mysticism and History: The Case of Spain's Golden Age." Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Avila and the Spanish Mystics. Ed. Alison Weber. New York: MLA, 2009. 47-56.
"Join the Jesuits, See the World: Women and the Society of Jesus." The Jesuits II. Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1773. Eds. John W. O'Malley et al. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. 33-47.
"The Economics of Salvation in El esclavo del demonio." Bulletin of the Comediantes, 59.2 (2008): 281-302.
Recent Papers and Presentations
"The Ghostly Writers of Early Modern Spain: God as Ghost." Symposium on Ghost Writers, Boston College, May 2019.
"Remembering It: Traumatic Memory in Early Modern Religious Writing." Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, Toronto, April 2019.
"The Religious Body Imagined: Where Do We Go From Here?" Capstone speaker, On the Edge: The Religious Body Imagined, Symposium, Elon College, Feb. 2019.
“When Father Doesn’t Know Best: Interpreting Jesuit Vocational Standards.” Sixteenth Century Studies Annual Conference, Albuquerque, NM, Nov. 2018.
“Seven Reasons to Hurt in Early Modern Catholicism." Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 2018.
“Saying Yes.” Dialogues on the Monologues: Faculty panel discussion sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies Program, Boston College, Feb. 2018.
“When Heaven is Complicit: Agueda de la Cruz and Abusive Catholic Piety.” Early Modern Iberian Studies Conference. Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, U. Mass Amherst. Sept. 2017.
"Living with Rodolfo and 'La fuerza de la sangre.'" 17th Annual Chicago Cervantes Symposium. Instituto Cervantes, Chicago. April 2017.
"Early Modern Catholic Female Piety: Texts, Truth and Trouble." University of North Carolina Greensboro and Elon University. April 2017.
"Women in Convents." Public Lectures with exhibit "Women of the Page: Convent Culture in the Early Modern Spanish World." John Carter Brown Library, Brown University. Feb. 2017.
Roundtable participant, Celebrating Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-2015). Public conference, Boston University, Nov. 2015.
"Behind Closed Doors: Luisa de Carvajal and the Abuse of Domestic Devotions." Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World (independent conference). Cambridge University [UK]. July 2015.
"Behind Closed Doors:Luisa de Carvajal and the Abuse of Domestic Devotions." Domestic Devotions in the Early Modern World (independent conference). Cambridge University [UK]. July 2015.
"How Do We Solve a Problem like Luisa?: Luisa de Carvajal and Interpreting Writings of Early Modern Religious Women." Early Modern Religious: Comparative Contexts (independent conference). Newberry Library, Chicago, March 2013.
"María de Zayas and the Gothic Aesthetic." Special session, Renaissance Society of America, Folger Library, Washington DC, March 2012.
"Reading Baroque: Desengaño 4 by María de Zayas." Public lecture, Brandeis University, 4 April 2011.
"The Devil and the Saint: the Case of Teresa de Jesús." American Historical Association, Boston, January 2011.
"María de Zayas and St. Beatriz of Rome." Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Forum for the Study of Early Modern Women in Continental Europe. Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. September 2010.
"Gender, History, and Luisa de Carvajal's Letters." Luisa de Carvajal, Her Life, Times and Works. Valladolid, Spain. June 2010.
"Las vidas de Francisco de Borja y la cuestión del género." Congreso internacional Francisco de Borja y su tiempo. Valencia, Spain. April 2010.
“Visual Literacy and the Art of Inquisitorial Spain.” In conjunction with the exhibit, El Greco to Velázquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III. Nash Museum, Duke University. October 2008.
“What is Mysticism?” Dept. of Humanities, Duke University, October 2008.
“The Arts of Inquisition during the Age of Velázquez and El Greco.” In conjunction with the exhibit, El Greco to Velázquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March-April 2008.