Dr. Gretchen Starr-Lebeau is an associate professor in the Department of History. She specializes in early modern European social history and the history of Spain, in particular the Reformation, the Inquisition, and the history of Spain’s Christians, Jews, and Muslims. She has authored In the Shadow of the Virgin: Inquisitors, Friars, and Conversos in Guadalupe, Spain (Princeton UP, 2003) and numerous essays on the history of religion, as well as changing political structures and social practices in early modern Europe. Her expertise is highly sought after by doctoral students in Hispanic Studies and she has participated in numerous masters and doctoral committees in our department. We appreciate her expertise and her generous and fruitful engagement with our graduate program.

Dr. Noemí Lugo, soprano and faculty member in the UK School of Music, is a long-time friend of the Department of Hispanic Studies. She specializes in vocal music of Spain and Latin America, vocal pedagogy and cultural studies related to music and identity. A native of Caracas, Venezuela, she has performed with major orchestras and choral organizations throughout the world. Her accomplished career includes many recitals and lecture recitals of Art Songs from Spain and Latin America.  Professors Noemí Lugo and Cliff Jackson, also  of the UK School of Music, gave a faculty recital on November, 2007 at the Singletary Center for the Arts. On March 27, 2008 they offered, with graduate students from the vocal/opera program, a recital of songs written or collected by Spanish writer Federico García Lorca, in the Niles Gallery. The program included traditional songs that García Lorca collected and transcribed for piano, as well as musical settings for his poems by composers from Spain, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Lugo’s involvement with Hispanic Studies since she came to UK in 1991 earned her a Special Award for Associated faculty at the departmental Awards ceremony on April 25, 2008.

 Dr. Cristina Alcalde of the University of Kentucky’s Department of Gender and Women’s Studies was honored at this year’s Awards Ceremony for her contributions to the work of Hispanic Studies graduate students. She currently serves on no less than seven different dissertation committees in our department. Of her involvement with our graduate students she says, “I've really enjoyed having Hispanic Studies students in my classes, and have had the opportunity to serve on the committees of Hispanic Studies students whose research areas are connected to my research on gender, violence, migration, and masculinities.” The topics covered in that research include Fidel Castro and constructions of masculinity, Chicana feminisms, Latina women's body image, and science fiction. Dr. Alcalde is a native of Lima, Peru, where her parents and extended family still reside, but she has strong Kentucky connections. She got her Bachelor’s degree University of Louisville before completing work for both an MA in Latin American Studies and a PhD in Anthropology at Indiana University. Her areas of specialization include Latin America, in particular Peru and the Andean region; US Latinos Studies; gender and migration; the intersections of state, institutional, and interpersonal violence; domestic violence; and Latino masculinities.