Institute for Research in the Humanities

Sherry Velasco

Position title: Biruté Ciplijauskaité Fellow in Peninsular Spanish Literature and Culture (2024-2025)

Pronouns: She/her

Address:
Professor, Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures; Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Southern California

This is a photo of a woman with blonde hair standing outside at dusk

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.