Amanda Eaton McMenamin earned her undergraduate degree in Spanish and French at the University of Delaware and her Ph.D. in Spanish (with a secondary concentration in French) from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. McMenamin came to Wilson College in 2009. She teaches courses in Spanish language; literature in Spanish from Spain, Africa, and the Americas, including the United States; Spanish and Latin American film; and Hispanic cultures. She also teaches courses in feminist theory for Women’s Studies and is director of the Wilson Scholars Program. She has been awarded the Summer Research stipend twice (2014, 2017) and the Donald Bletz Award for Excellence in Teaching twice (2010, 2013).

Although she began as a specialist in the 19th and 20th centuries of Peninsular Spanish literatures and cultures, in her teaching and research agenda, she has considerably broadened her focus to incorporate Latin American literary and cultural production, particularly in the area of film studies.

Recent publications include:
McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Eating to Live, Living to Tell: Foundational Food in the Latina Testimonial Text.” The Routledge Companion to Food and Literature, edited by Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Donna Lee Brien. Routledge, 2018, pp. 450-59.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Petra, o la falsa joya del hogar: La anacrónica economía de sexo aristocrática y el desarreglo del ángel del hogar burgués en La Regenta (1884-5) de Clarín.” Verbeia: Journal of Spanish and English Studies, vol. 1, 2016, pp. 143-61.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “The Elliptical Short Story: 'Re/Membering' Woman’s Subjectivity in Luisa Valenzuela’s Testimony 'Other Weapons' (1982).” Short Story Journal, vol. 22, no. 2, 2016, pp. 49-57.

Forthcoming publications include:
McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “(E)stranging the Modern Nation: Transnationalism and Bastard Border Crossings in the Duke of Rivas’ The Foundling Moor (1833).” Making Strangers: Outsiders, Aliens and Foreigners, edited by Abbes Maazaoui. Vernon Press, 2018.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Almodóvar’s Palimpsestuous Bastards: Interserial Interpretations of Illegitimate Ibero-Identities in La mala educación (2004), Volver (2006), and La piel que habito (2011).” Iberian Identities: Twenty-First Century Studies in Peninsular Spanish Fiction and Film, edited by Jennifer Brady and Meredith Jeffers. Cambridge Scholars, 2018.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “A Better Life,” “Alejandro González Iñárritu,” “Babel,” “El Norte,” and “La vida loca.” The Encyclopedia of Racism in America Film, edited by Salvador Jimenez Murguía. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “A mi madre le gustan las mujeres,” “Biutiful,” “Cosas que nunca te dije,” “El laberinto del fauno,” “Flores de otro mundo,” “Hable con ella,” “La mala educación,” “La piel que habito,” “La vida secreta de las palabras,” “Sexo por compasión,” “Vacas,” and “Volver.” The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Films, edited by Salvador Jimenez Murguía and Alex Pinar. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “The Cyclical Cinema of Lisandro Alonso: Colonial Concatenations of Toxic Masculinity and Marginalized Femininity”.” ReFocus: The Films of Lisandro Alonso, edited by Michael Talbott. Edinburgh University Press.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “When Will ‘We’ Be Free? Interrogating U.S. Imperialism in Julia Alvarez’s Young-Adult Novel, Before We Were Free (2002).” Children’s and Young Adult Literature of the Caribbean and its Diaspora, edited by Betsy Nies and Melissa Garcia Vega. University of Mississippi Press.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Allegories of Adolescent Agency and Decolonial Departures in Latin American Film: Against the Neocolonial Infantilization of Venezuela in Solveig Hoogesteijn’s Maroa (2005).” Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on Page, Screen, and In-Between, edited by Ingrid E. Castro and Jessica Clark. Lexington Books.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “The Synecdochic Cinema of Pablo Larraín: The Castro Cycle of Chilean Complicity in Tony Manero (2008), Post mortem (2010), No (2012), El club (2105), and Neruda (2016).” ReFocus: The Films of Pablo Larraín, edited by Laura Hatry. Edinburgh University Press.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” The Encyclopedia of Sexism in American Film, edited by Joan Dymond, Kristina Fennelly, and Salvador Jimenez Murguia. Rowman & Littlefield.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Clandestinos,” “Fresa y chocolate,” “La edad de la peseta,” “La última cena,” “Viva Cuba.” The Encyclopedia of Cuban Cinema, edited by Salvador Jimenez Murguía, Sean O’Reilly, and Amanda Eaton McMenamin. Rowman & Littlefield.

Jimenez Murguía, Salvador, Sean O’Reilly, and Amanda Eaton McMenamin, editors. The Encyclopedia of Cuban Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield.

Recent presentations include:
McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “The Cyclical ‘Slow Cinema’ of Lisandro Alonso: Colonial Concatenations.” Northeastern Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Conference, 13 April 2018, Omni William Penn, Pittsburgh, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Tyrannous Tutelage or Educational Emancipation? Interrogating Imperialism and Finding Freedom in Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free (2002).” The Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Interdisciplinary Conference, 5 April 2018, West Chester University, West Chester, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “¡Yo! Authorial Assertion under the Eye/I of La autora in Rosa Chacel’s Estación, ida y vuelta (1930).” Conference on the Global Status of Women and Girls, 23 March 2018, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, VA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Apocryphal Anxieties of Authorship in Rosa Chacel's Estación, ida y vuelta (1930): Between Modernist Male Master and Furtive Female ‘Follower.’” Humanities Conference, 24 February 2018, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “When Will ‘We’ Be Free? Interrogating U.S. Imperialism through Innocent I/Eyes in Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free (2002).” Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) Conference, 9 November 2017, Sonesta Philadelphia Downtown, Philadelphia, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Unbearable Ambiguity in the Elliptical Short Story: ‘Re/Membering’ Woman’s Subjectivity Amidst the Dirty War in Luisa Valenzuela’s Testimony ‘Other Weapons.’” Virginia Humanities Conference, 8 April 2017, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “(E)stranging the Modern Nation: Transnationalism and Bastard Border Crossings in the Duke of Rivas’ The Foundling Moor.” Lincoln Humanities Conference, 1 April 2017, Lincoln University, Lincoln University, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Eating to Live, Living to Tell: Foundational Food and Overcoming Otherness in the Latina Testimonial Text.” Humanities Conference, 25 February 2017, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Almodóvar’s Harbingers of Spanish Hybridity: Genre-Crossing Adaptations and Intertexts in Bad Education (2004), Volver (2006), and The Skin I Live In (2011).” Literature & Film Association Annual Conference, 15 October 2016, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Panoptic Spies and Neoliberal Lies: Domitila Barrios de Chungara’s Testimonial Le me speak! (1978), or the Plight of the Bolivian Mining Community.” Common Hour Lecture Series, 20 September 2016, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. Guest Lecture.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “No Past, No Future: Temporal Dysphasia in Hoogestijn’s Maroa (2005) and Cordero’s Ratas ratones rateros (1999).” Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies, 2 April 2016, Bowling Green University, Bowling Green, OH. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “The Wilson Scholars Program First-Year Seminar: An Exploration of Global Social Justice that Grounds Diversity at the Core of the Honors Experience.” Supporting Diversity in Honors Education Conference, 10 March 2016, Oakland University, Rochester, MI. Conference Presentation.

McMenamin, Amanda Eaton. “Death Dances of Doom and Apocalyptic Anagnorisis: The Philosophy of Simone Weil and the Poetry of Federico García Lorca.” Humanities Conference, 27 February 2016, Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA. Conference Presentation.

 

As a Wilson legacy, whose late mother, Joan Maxcy Eaton, was a graduate of the class of 1974, Dr. McMenamin finds it very special to be a part of the College. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her partner, David, also a Wilson graduate, and their golden retriever, Jasper, another familiar face on campus.