Biography
Valerie Hegstrom received her PhD from the University of Kansas. She taught for four years at the University of New Mexico before joining the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Brigham Young University. She is an affiliated faculty member of the Comparative Literature, European Studies, and the Global Women’s Studies programs as well. Dr. Hegstrom’s research focuses on the recovery of literary works by Early Modern women who wrote in Spanish and Portuguese. She recently completed a translation of Maria do Céu’s allegory Enganos do bosque, desenganos do rio, based on the edition by Cristina Cowley. Her current projects include an edition and translation of poems, stories, a play, and letters by Maria do Céu, and, in collaboration with Vanda Anastácio, a translation of the coded letters that the Marquise de Alorna wrote (sometimes in invisible ink) to her father in prison. Among other honors, she received the P.A. Christensen Lectureship in BYU’s College of Humanities in 2019, the David Gitlitz Comedia Prize in Pedagogy and Mentorship from the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater in 2018, a Scholarly Editions and Translations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and an Alcuin Fellowship from BYU’s College of General Education and Honors. She serves as the coordinator of the BYU Global Women’s Studies Program and faculty advisor to the Women’s Studies Honor Society.
Recent Publications
“In the Caves,” by Emilia Pardo Bazán. Translation, Introduction, and Notes by Valerie Hegstrom. Hélice: Reflexiones críticas sobre ficción especulativa 5.1 (2019): 97-122.
Rev. of Women Playwrights of Early Modern Spain: Feliciana Enríquez de Guzmán, Ana Caro Mallén, and Sor Marcela de San Félix, translated by Harley Erdman, edited by Nieves Romero-Díaz and Lisa Vollendorf. [Book Review.] Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal (EMWJ) 13.2 (2019): 96-99.
El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead, by Ângela de Azevedo. Edition by Valerie Hegstrom. Translation by Catherine Larson. Critical Introduction and Notes by Valerie Hegstrom and Catherine Larson. Aris & Phillips Hispanic Classics. Liverpool University Press, 2018.
“‘La décima musa portuguesa’ and Her Soledades de Buçaco: Gendered Landscape Poetry Dedicated to the Nuns of Santo Alberto.” Calíope: Journal of the Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry 22.2 (2017): 145-64.
“Mentoring Spanish Theater Performance and Service Learning: The BYU Spanish Golden Age Theater Project’s Production of Guillén de Castro’s El Narciso en su opinión.” Co-authored with Dale J. Pratt. Religious and Secular Theater in Golden Age Spain: Essays in Honor of Donald T. Dietz. Ed. Susan Paun de García and Donald Larson. Iberica series. New York: Peter Lang, 2017. 175-87.
“Mujeres y criados: Lope’s Recovered Comedy at Chamizal.” [Performance Review.] Bulletin of the Comediantes 69.1 (2017): 181-85.
“Four Centuries of Good Government: A Story about the Modern Age,” by Nilo María Fabra. Translation, Introduction, and Notes by Valerie Hegstrom. Hélice: Reflexiones críticas sobre ficción especulativa 3.8 (2017): 73-83.
“Reading El Buscón on the Chamizal Stage.” [Performance Review.] Comedia Performance 13.1 (2016): 223-29.
“Gendered Matters: Engaging Research on Early Modern Dramaturgas in the Classroom.” Co-authored with Amy R. Williamsen. Teaching Gender through Latin American, Latino and Iberian Texts and Culture. Ed. Leila Gómez, Asunción Horno-Delgado, Mary K. Long, Núria Silleras-Fernández. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2015. 99-124.
“Early Modern Dramaturgas: A Contemporary Performance History,” Co-authored with Amy R. Williamsen. Remaking the Comedia: Spanish Classical Theater in Adaptation. Ed. Harley Erdman and Susan Paun de García. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Tamesis, 2015. 83-92.
“El convento como espacio escénico y la monja como actriz: montajes teatrales en tres conventos de Valladolid, Madrid y Lisboa.” Letras en la celda: Cultura escrita de los conventos femeninos en la España moderna. Ed. Nieves Baranda Leturio and María Carmen Marín Pina. Madrid: Iberoamericana – Vervuert, 2014. 363-78.
Links
“My Personal Journey to Becoming a Feminist.” Constant Wonder. BYU Radio, October 15, 2018.
“Women’s Studies to Become Kennedy Center Program, Seek Approval for Major,” The Daily Universe, January 22, 2018.
“5 Women’s Studies Classes to Take Before Graduation,” by Madalyn McRae, The Daily Universe, December 12, 2017.
“An Homage to Female Heroes,” by Faith Sutherlin Blackhurst, BYU Magazine, Summer 2017.
“Women’s Studies Celebrates 25 Years at BYU,” by Anne Taylor, The Daily Universe, November 7, 2016.
“Europe’s Feminist Legacies,” Café CSE Speaker Series, European Studies and the Kennedy Center, Brigham Young University, November 18, 2015.
“Understanding Feminism,” by Kristina M. Smith, BYU Magazine, Summer 2015.
“Feminism, Women’s Movements, Sex and Peace,” The Morning Show, BYU Radio, October 22, 2014. (Start at minute 13:59)
“Why European Women Don’t . . . ,” Café CSE Speaker Series, European Studies and the Kennedy Center, Brigham Young University, April 3, 2013.
“Tragedy or Comedy? The Outcome of Rash, Young Love in Lope de Vega’s Castelvines y Monteses and El caballero de Olmedo,” a presentation at the symposium Early Modern Spanish Theater: Text and Performance, Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, April 2-4, 2012.
Women’s Studies Colloquium (Lecture Series)
BYU Women’s Studies Website
BYU Spanish Golden Age Theater Website
BYU Spanish Golden Age Theater Outreach Video
Administrative Assignments
- : Other (Move to BYU Citizenship?) (2011 - Present)