Bill Worden

Associate Professor of Spanish

Education

  • PhD, Hispanic Studies, Brown University
  • MA, Spanish, Middlebury College
  • AB, Mathematics, Dartmouth College

Bio

My two principal research interests are early modern Spanish literature and foreign language pedagogy. In the field of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature, I focus on the works of Miguel de Cervantes and most especially on his most famous novel: Don Quixote. My work in pedagogy is designed to help world language teachers be more effective in the classroom and help students acquire Spanish more easily.

As is the case with my research, my teaching interests are focused both on early modern Spanish literature and on the acquisition of the Spanish language. During the fall and spring semesters, I teach both undergraduate and graduate courses on Spanish literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; in the summer I teach introductory Spanish language classes. I am also the UA in Colombia Faculty Director and will be directing our summer program at the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia beginning in 2019.

In addition to my teaching for the University of Alabama, I am also the Spanish professor for The Great Courses series of video courses for adult learners produced by The Teaching Company. “Learning Spanish: How to Understand and Speak a New Language” is the equivalent of a first-semester college-level Spanish course. “Learning Spanish II: How to Understand and Speak a New Language” is the equivalent of a second-semester college-level  Spanish course.

Websites

“Why Learn Spanish?” Blog Post

“Learning Spanish” Course Website

“Learning Spanish II” Course Website

Selected Publications

  • “Helping Undergraduates Make Connections to Don Quixote.” Approaches to Teaching Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote.’ Eds. James A. Parr and Lisa Vollendorf. New York: Modern Language Association, 2015. 218-24.
  • “Staying in the Target Language While Teaching Middle School and High School.” Dimension: Journal of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (2013): 135-46.
  • “Cervantes Transforms Ovid: The Dubious Metamorphoses in Don Quixote.” Ovid in the Age of Cervantes. Ed. Frederick de Armas. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2010. 116-33.
  • “El pícaro en la narrativa y en el teatro: Lazarillo de Tormes como subtexto de Los intereses creados.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84.3 (2007): 315-24.
  • “The First Illustrator of Don Quixote: Miguel de Cervantes.” Ekphrasis in the Age of Cervantes. Ed. Frederick de Armas. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2005. 144-55.
  • “Scandal, Desire, and Indecency in El príncipe jardinero.” Dieciocho 28.1 (2005): 103-19.
  • “Sancho Panza and the Power of the Spoken Word in Don Quixote.” Romance Notes 44.1 (2003): 41-50.