Brian J. Cope

Department/Affiliation: Spanish
Phone: 330-263-2203
Office Address: 209 Kauke
Email: bcope@wooster.edu
Web Site: Brian Cope

Degrees

• B.A., Washington, St. Louis 1995
• M.A., California, Irvine 1998
• Ph.D., California, Irvine 2004
  

Courses Taught

• Beginning and Intermediate Spanish Language
• Readings in Spanish Culture
• Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Spanish Peninsular Writers
• Special Topics in Spanish Peninsular Literature and Culture
• Hispanic Film

I.S. Projects Supervised

• “Oaxaca vive, ¿la lucha sigue?: Una crónica de conflictividad social.” Lauren Hines, 2009. (double major with English)
• “España vista desde afuera: la evolución del turismo en España desde los finales del siglo XIX hasta el nuevo milenio.” Rebecca Beyer, 2007.
• “El concepto de la salvación en las obras de Miguel de Unamuno.” Emily Richardson, 2007.
• “El problema del libre albedrío en Niebla.” Sean Hennessey, 2006.

Professional Memberships

• Modern Language Association
• American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese

Publications

• “Unamuno’s San Manuel Bueno, mártir: Philosophical Skepticism in a Time of Political Upheaval.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 45.1 (Spring 2011)
• “Synchronicity in Julio Medem’s Los amantes del Círculo Polar: Poeticizing Coincidence in a Taoist Vernacular.” Anales de la literatura española contemporánea 36.1 (Winter 2011)
  
• “The Convergence of Mysticism and Psychosis in Almodóvar’s Hable con ella.” Ojáncano 37 (Spring 2010)
• “The Hellenic Origins of Unamuno’s Skepticism and Niebla’s Skeptical Parody of   Cartesianism.” Hispanic Review 77.4 (Autumn 2009)

Teaching Philosophy

To give courses designed to take students on a journey of inquiry and discovery that along the way challenge them to build very high levels of proficiency in language and critical thinking. He believes that college is a time for students to acquire useful aptitudes and areas of knowledge as well as discover new potentials. His approach to teaching is to provide a structured path that leads to the desired outcomes and to help students get there by giving them the necessary tools, guidance, motivation, and encouragement. He believes that true learning entails trial and error and that with the right balance of hard work, discipline, and planning everything is attainable.

Notes

Professor Cope is completing a book on skeptical philosophy in the thought and creative writing of Miguel de Unamuno. Cope's general interests include 19th, 20th, and 21st century Spanish literature, particularly the Generation of 98, dissident literature of the Franco dictatorship, contemporary literature, and auteurist cinema.