Alejandra Juno Rodriguez Villar
Associate Professor of Spanish
Chair of the Modern Languages Department
Classes:
– Beginning Spanish I
– Beginning Spanish II
– Intermediate Spanish I: The Spanish Speaking World
– Off-Campus Spanish Conversation and Culture
– Introduction to Literature in Spanish
– Medieval & Golden Age Spain
– Spanish Culture & Civilization
– Stylistics and Composition
– Cervantes on Page and Stage
Learn more about Alejandra
Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar joined Hanover College in 2018 as the Early Modern scholar of the Spanish Program in the Modern Languages Department. Originally from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, she has been always an active theater practitioner as an actress, director and playwright, with a special dedication to Early Modern Spanish Theater. She lives part of the in Spain, and part of the year in Hanover with her husband Rodney.
Specializations
Advanced Grammar, Early Modern Spanish Literature, Early Modern Spanish Theater. Her research and scholar production focus on cognitive studies, performance studies, humor, translation, digital humanities and public humanities.
Education
B.A., Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain)
M.A., Universidade de A Coruña (Spain)
Ph.D., Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
Ph.D., Duke University
Fellowships and Awards
2025 Yeses Award in recognition to dramatic writing, Madrid, Spain.
2024 Recipient of the 2024 David Gitlitz Comedia Prize in Pedagogy and Mentorship from the Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, Inc. (AHCT). The accolade recognizes efforts to foster greater appreciation for Spain’s classical drama in production.
2023 Daryl R. Karns Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity, Hanover College.
2021 PALNI Open Pedagogy Innovator.
Selected Publications
REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES:
2024 Calderón Onstage in Spanish Florida: Context, Text and Reconstruction. In The Comedia Between Worlds/La comedia entre mundos. Sociedad Menéndez Pelayo. https://doi.org/10.55422/ppsmp.9
2023 “Para que se represente esta comedia aparente que hace el humano sentido”. In Resistencia e innovación en la escena del siglo XXI. Ed. Esther Fernández and David Rodríguez Solás. Especial Monograph in the journal Acotaciones. Investigaciones y creación teatral. Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid, Spain. Vol, 50.
“A Neuroscientific and Cognitive Literary Approach to the Treatment of Time in Calderón’s Autos sacramentales.” In Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, Vol. 16, 2022.
“El retablo de las maravillas representa hoy la famosa fazaña de La Barraca. Convirtiendo a Cervantes dramaturgo en familiar para el público estadounidense”. Comedia Performance, Vol. 18, 1, 2021. p. 66-86
“Aspectos cognitivos en el humor de los entremeses de Cervantes.” EHumanista/Cervantes, Vol. 8, 2020.University of California. p. 51-65
“A Cyberpunk version of Life is a Dream at Duke University.” Comedia Performance, Vol. 11, 1 Spring, p. 85-111
BOOKS:
[Alejandra Juno] “Cuando Compostela subió el telón. Crónica sentimental de la década dorada del teatro santiagués, 1960-1970.” Ed. Alvarellos, Santiago de Compostela, 2011. 395 p. Monograph.
[Alejandra Juno] “Cuando Compostela subió el telón. Crónica sentimental de la década dorada del teatro santiagués, 1960-1970.” Ed. Alvarellos, Santiago de Compostela, 2011. 395 p. Monograph.
BOOK CHAPTERS:
“El teatro religioso de Fray Gabriel Téllez”. Companion to Tirso de Molina. Boydell & Brewer, 2023. P. 51-71
“El demonio celoso de Calderón”. Living the Comedia. Peculiar Lives in Early Modern Spain. Essays Celebrating Amy Williamsen. University Press of the South, 2020. p. 201-212
REVIEWS IN REFEREED JOURNALS:
2026 Review. Don Gil de las calzas verdes. Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico de España. Performance Review. Comedia Performance. Forthcoming.
2025 Review. El monstruo de los jardines. Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico de España. Rodríguez Villar, Alejandra Juno, and Esther Fernández. Comedia Performance, vol. 22, no. 1, 2025, pp. 58–60. https://doi.org/10.5325/comeperf.22.0058.
2024 Review. Staging and stage décor. Early Modern Spanish Theater. Ed. Bárbara Mujica. Vernon Press, 2022. Sixteen Century Journal. Volume 55,Number 3-4|Fall/Winter 2024 pp. 985-987. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/732553
2024 Review. Clásicos subversivos / Clásicos subvertidos: Apropiación y vigencia del teatro áureo. Julio Vélez. Reichenberger, 2023. Bulletin of Comediantes. Volume 76, Number 1, 2025 pp. 169-171. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/107/article/970264
2024 Review. Protecting the Spanish Woman. Gender Identity and Empowerment in María de Zayas’s Works. Xavier Granja Ibarreche. University Nevada Press. Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , Spring 2025 , pp. 317 – 318. https://resolve.cambridge.org/core/journals/renaissance-quarterly/article/abs/protecting-the-spanish-woman-gender-identity-and-empowerment-in-maria-de-zayass-works-xabier-granja-ibarreche-reno-university-of-nevada-press-2023-xv-264-pp-65/B1D70FBA10F9BFC6A2DB57878A01231C
2023 Review. To Embody the Marvellous. The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain. Esther Fernández. Vanderbilt UP, 2021. Hispania, Vol. 107, Fall 23.
2022 Review. El caballero del sol by Vélez de Guevara. Eds. William R. Manson y C. George Peale. Comedia Performance, Vol 19. Spring 22.
The Widow of Valencia by Lope de Vega. Tr.: UCLA Working Group. The Comedia. Translation and Performance, n. 329. Newark, Delaware: Juan de la Cuesta-Hispanic Monographs, 2019. Comedia Performance, Vol 18, 1, 2021
La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Performance. Almagro, July 2019. Comedia Performance, Vol 17, 1, 2020
La corte del demonio by Luis Vélez de Guevara. Eds. William R. Manson y C. George Peale. Comedia Performance, Vol 17, 1, 2020
Performances
2022-present Member of Dragoncillo Member Troupe. www.dragoncillo.com
“El viejo celoso” by Miguel de Cervantes. TV-movie. Directed by Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar. Hanover College, 2025.
“La cueva de Salamanca” by Miguel de Cervantes.TV-movie. Directed by Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar. Hanover College, 2023.
“La guarda cuidadosa” by Miguel de Cervantes. Directed by Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar. Hanover College, 2021.
“El retablo de las maravillas” by Miguel de Cervantes. Directed by Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar. Hanover College, 2019.
“Life is a Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Cyberpunk version. Directed by Alejandra Juno Rodríguez Villar. Duke University, 2008.
