Natalio Ohanna

Dr. Natalio Ohanna is a professor in the Department of Spanish and affiliated faculty in the Medieval Institute and in the Global and International Studies Program at Western Michigan University. He is also a co-founder of the University Center for the Humanities.

Professor Ohanna specializes in Spanish Golden Age and Spanish American colonial literatures, with a focus on the intellectual history of the Early Modern period, the cultural triangle of Europe, Africa and the Americas in struggle and exchange, the discursive configuration of the East and the New World, the representation of minoritized communities in Early Modern Spanish drama, and the social and political meanings of cross-cultural plays and narratives of travel and captivity. His scholarship has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Hispanic Review, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Modern Language Notes, Hispania, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Anales Cervantinos, Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, and Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, among others. His book, "Cautiverio y convivencia en la edad de Cervantes," was published by Centro de Estudios Cervantinos, sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Autonomous Community of Madrid, the City of Alcalá de Henares, and the University of Alcalá. He published the first critical edition of "Los cautivos de Argel" by Lope de Vega (Clásicos Castalia), which is part of a broader project on the construction of social marginality in Spanish Golden Age drama.

Professor Ohanna’s research was funded by the HISPANEX Program for Cultural Promotion in Foreign Universities (the Spanish Ministry of Culture), and he received the College of Arts and Sciences’ Faculty Achievement Award in Research and Creative Activity.