Sherry Velasco
Biruté Ciplijauskaité Fellow in Peninsular Spanish Literature and Culture (2024-2025)
Professor, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures; Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Southern California
Listening in the Age of Cervantes: Moriscas and Gendered Sounds from Spain to Algiers
Listening in the Age of Cervantes: Moriscas and Gendered Sounds from Spain to Algiers asks how and why both Christians and Muslims were keen to listen, interpret, recount, silence, or imagine sounds produced by Moriscas (female descendants of Muslims) in Spain and Algiers during the early modern period. Instead of relying on the usual strategy of looking for Moriscas in literary and cultural texts, I invite readers to consider listening to the archive for the acoustic qualities and semantic significance of the vocalizations, musical expressions, noise-making, and sonic production by Muslim and Christian women on both sides of the Mediterranean.
Sherry Velasco is Professor of early modern Spanish literature and culture in Latin American and Iberian Cultures and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California. Velasco is the author of four monographs, including Lesbians in Early Modern Spain and The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire, and Catalina de Erauso, among others. Velasco’s current book project is: Listening in the Age of Cervantes: Moriscas and Gendered Sounds from Spain to Algiers.
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