Sarah Finley - Christopher Newport University

Directory



Sarah Finley

Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures - Honors Program


Sarah Finley

Associate Professor

McMurran Hall 129
(757) 594-7969
sarah.finley@cnu.edu

Education

  • Ph D in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky
  • MA in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky
  • BM in Vocal Performance, Converse College

Research

Colonial Spanish American Literary and Cultural Studies
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Sound Studies
Early Modern Hispanic Women
Race Studies

Biography

Sarah Finley is Associate Professor of Spanish at Christopher Newport University. Training in literature, musicology and vocal performance supports her research on sound and music in the early modern Hispanic world. Her book Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is a pioneer exploration of sound in the work of Mexican poet and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Finley’s second monograph Amplifications of Black Sound from Colonial Mexico: Vocality and Beyond (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024) is the first book-length study of Afro-descendant sound in viceregal Mexico or elsewhere in colonial Latin America. In addition, she has published articles and delivered lectures on auditory culture in early modern convents, Sor Juana’s transatlantic networks of lettered women and Afro-descendant sound in colonial Mexico. Grants from The Huntington Library, the Helmerich Center for American Research, the UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies and the Virginia Commission for the Arts have supported her work.

Selected Accomplishments

  • Award for Best Article, Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer en España y las Américas (pre-1800). (2024)
  • Provost's Award for Faculty Excellence in Interdisciplinarity, Christopher Newport University. (2022)
  • Provost's Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching Writing, Christopher Newport University. (2019)
  • Book, Scholarly-New
    (2024). Amplifications of Black Sound from Colonial Mexico: Vocality and Beyond. Critical Mexican Studies at Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Encyclopedia Article
    (2024). "Early Modern Women Writers of the Spanish Americas". The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2023). “ ‘Cantemo, Pilico’: Sounding Race in Sor Juana’s villancicos”. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2023). “Sor Juana and the Countess of Villaumbrosa". Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2022). “ ‘¿Enseñar Música a un Ángel?’: The Countess of Villaumbrosa as Sor Juana’s Musical Patron in Romance 21.”. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. Volume, 56. Issue, 1. Pages, 29-50.
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    (2022). “Patronage, Paratexts and the Poetic Voice in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Inundación castálida (1689).”. Casa Vacía. Pages, 219-34.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020). “Más allá de la sonoridad: huellas del pensamiento musical en el convento de Jesús María de México.”. Boletín de Monumentos Históricos. Volume, 45. Pages, 68-82.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020). “Sounding Feminine Intellect in the villancicos to St. Catherine of Alexandria (1691).”. Calíope: Journal for the Society of Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry. Volume, 25. Issue, 1. Pages, 24-43.
  • Book, Scholarly-New
    (2019). Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. University of Nebraska P, New Hispanisms Series. Pages, 252.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2018). "Exemplary sound and hearing in sensory treatises from the early modern Spanish-speaking world". The Senses and Society. Volume, 13. Issue, 2. Pages, 203-18.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2016). “Embodied Sound and Female Voice in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Canon: Romance 8 and El divino Narciso”. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. Volume, 50. Issue, 1. Pages, 191-216.
  • Sarah Finley, Beyond Interdisciplinarity: Women's Cultural Production Before 1800, "“‘Tus esposas dicen que se enmendarán’: Monjas, imaginación sonora y desastres naturales en la Ciudad de México, siglo XVII”," Puebla, Mexico. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting, "Roundtable participant in "Critical Mexican Studies, 2024: Approaches, Recent and Forthcoming"," Bogotá, Colombia. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Sound Faith: Religion and the Acoustic World, 1400-1800, ""The Sounds of Afro-Diasporic Ritual in Colonial Mexico"," University of York (England) / Virtual. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Early Latin American Music Festival, ""Hearing Diversity in Early Latin American Music"," (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, "Roundtable participant in “Present and Future of Hispanic Early Modern Women Studies: Beyond the Pauline Dictum.”," Chicago, IL. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, "Response to “Power and Aurality in Colonial Latin America.”," Denver, CO. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, "“Stage and Lyric in Black villancicos: Versions, Inversions, Repercussions.”," Chicago, IL. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, "“Black castrati in the New Spanish Lyrical, Musical and Archival Imagination”," Chicago, IL. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Approaches to Sound in the Early Modern Atlantic World Symposium, "“Afro-descendant Harmonies in New Spain”," Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Seminario: Los conventos de monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la postmodernidad, ""La condesa de Villaumbrosa, mecenas musical de sor Juana Inés de la Cruz"," Mexico City / virtual. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, “Attending to Women, 1100-1800: Performance”, "“Native, Black and European Women Performing Power in Religious Spaces in the Spanish Empire (17th and 18th centuries)"," Newberry Library, Chicago, IL. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, XXVI Juan Bruce-Novoa Mexicanista Conference “Soundscapes of México.”, "“Echolocation: Imagined Soundscapes of the Mexico Tenochtitlan Waterways.”," Irvine, CA. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, Feminine Soundscapes, "“Remixing the Phoenix: Afro-descent in Rak Ric Rack!'s Tumba La-Lá-La: Los villancicos negros de sor Juana (2008).”," Virtual. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, "“Lyric and the Animating Black Body in New Spanish villancicos de negros.”," Dublin, Ireland. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, ""Sor Juana and the Countess of Villaumbrosa"," Virtual. (2020)
  • Sarah Finley, The Academic Minute, "Hearing Voices of Women Past," (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association International Symposium, "Intersections of Theater, Poetry and Music in an 18th-Century Setting of Sor Juana’s Loa 380," Lisbon, Portugal. (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, "A Phoenix Reborn: A Concert of Previously Unedited Music for Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Loa 380," Christopher Newport University. (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, Sarah Gallo, Valentina Sorbera, Transatlantic Perspectives, "Singing with the Sisters: Sacred Vocal Music of New Spanish Women," Charleston, SC. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, 3er Congreso Internacional Los Conventos de Monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la post modernidad, "El ámbito sonoro del convento de Jesús María," Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Querétaro, Mexico.. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, "“Sounding Feminine Intellect in the villancicos to St. Catherine of Alexandria (1691).”," New York, NY. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, "Death, Seen and Heard: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s Inheritance of Musical Iconography in vanitas Still Lifes.”," Philadelphia, PA. (2017)
  • Sarah Finley, Forging Links Across Space and Time, "La oreja de mi entendimiento’: Alucinaciones auditivas en la Arboleda de los enfermos de Teresa de Cartagena.”," San Juan, Puerto Rico. (2016)
  • Sarah Finley, Seminario: Los conventos de monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la postmodernidad., "“Vislumbres sonoros: Nuevas aproximaciones a la representación del sonido en la obra de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz”," Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City. (2016)
  • Sarah Finley, SAMLA 87-In Concert: Literature and the Other Arts, "“Auditory Paradigms and Hearing in Sor Juana’s Canon: Primero sueño”," Durham, NC. (2015)
  • Sarah Finley,, Cloistered Women’s Voices: Symposium on Sound, Song and Silence in Early Modern Convents, ""Contrapuntal Voices: Silence in New Spanish Convents"," Lexington, KY. (2015)
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