Barbara Simerka
Undergraduate Advisor
Associate Professor
Office: Kiely Hall 243A
Voice: 718-997-5663
Fax:718-997-5669
Email: barbara.simerka@qc.cuny.edu
Barbara Simerka
specializes in early modern Spanish literature, with particular
interests in women's writing, postcolonial studies and, most recently,
cognitive theory. She is the author of Discourses of Empire
(Penn State UP 2003) and editor of three anthologies of scholarly
essays (Bucknell UP). She serves on the MLA Executive Committee for
16th-17th century Spanish Drama.
In recent years, her work has focused on cognitive theory and literature, with a focus on the sociocultural dimensions of mirror neuron functions: theory of mind, emotional contagion, and reader empathy and immersion. She co-edited "Cognitive Cervantes", a special issue of Cervantes: Journal of the Cervantes Society of America (Spring 2012). She is author of Knowing Subjects: Cognitive Cultural Studies and Early Modern Spanish Literature. Purdue UP, 2013.
