Robert Patrick Newcomb

PROFILE

Robert Patrick Newcomb joined the UC Davis faculty in 2008, after completing his PhD in Luso-Brazilian Studies at Brown University. He teaches Luso-Brazilian and Hispanic/Latin American literatures, is undergraduate advisor for Portuguese, director of the UC Iberian Studies Consortium, and co-director of the UC Davis European Studies Initiative.

His research focuses on comparative literature - specifically, comparative approaches to Luso-Hispanic literatures, in both Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, with emphasis placed on the late 19th/early 20th centuries, the essay, and literary relations between writers operating in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds. He is active in public debates on Iberian studies, and is a translator (Portuguese to English) of literary and critical texts.

His current book projects are Writing Out of Place: Dislocation and Transnational Lusophone Literature, and In the Shadow of the Rock: Writing Gibraltar into the World.

EDUCATION AND DEGREES

Ph.D., Luso-Brazilian Studies, Brown University
MA, Luso-Brazilian Studies, Brown University
BA, Luso-Brazilian Studies/International Relations, Brown University, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Comparative Luso-Hispanic studies
• Luso-Brazilian and Hispanic/Latin American literature and culture (primarily 19th-20th c.)
• Iberian studies and Iberianism
• Gibraltar and Gibraltarian literature
• The essay, theory, and criticism
• Poetry, poetics, and translation
• Theory and methodology of comparative literature
• Literature and philosophy

GRADUATE SEMINARS

• Spanish 274: The Return of the Caravels: Post-Colonial Literatures of the Portuguese-speaking World
• Spanish 274: A World in Motion: Travelers, Migrants, and Exiles in Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature
• Spanish 274: Zonas de contato: Lusophone Narratives of Encounter
• Spanish 274: Theories of Iberia and Latin America
• Spanish 274: Problems of Knowledge in Luso-Hispanic Literature
• Spanish 274: Luso-Hispanic Encounters
• Spanish 224: Introduction to Iberian Studies
• Spanish 272: Culture and Resistance in Luso-Brazilian Literature

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

• Portuguese 163: Modern and Contemporary Brazilian Literature
• Portuguese 162: Introduction to Brazilian Literature
• Portuguese 161: Luso-Brazilian Literature and Culture
• Portuguese 100: Principles of Luso-Brazilian Literature and Criticism 
• Portuguese 31G: Portuguese for Spanish-speaking Graduate Students
• Spanish 159: Brazilian Literature in English Translation
• Spanish 157: Cross-Border Fictions
• Spanish 151: Transnational Latin American Literature
• Spanish 100: Principles of Hispanic Literature and Criticism

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

• Iberianism and Crisis: Spain and Portugal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Toronto, 2018)
• Nossa and Nuestra América: Inter-American Dialogues (Purdue, 2011)

EDITED VOLUMES AND SPECIAL ISSUES

• Newcomb, Robert Patrick, ed. "In the Shadow of the Rock: The Literature of Gibraltar." International Journal of Iberian Studies (forthcoming).
• Transatlantic Studies: Latin America, Iberia, and Africa (co-edited w/ Cecilia Enjuto Rangel, Sebastiaan Faber, and Pedro García-Caro, Liverpool, 2019)
• Fernandes, Ângela, Santiago Pérez Isasi, and Robert Patrick Newcomb, eds. "‘Iberian Studies: New Spaces of Inquiry". International Journal of Iberian Studies 32 (2019)
• Beyond Tordesillas: New Approaches to Critical Essays in Comparative Luso-Hispanic Studies (co-edited w/ Richard A. Gordon; Ohio State, 2017)

ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS (2019-PRESENT)

• "In the Shadow of the Rock: The Literature of Gibraltar," International Journal of Iberian Studies (forthcoming).
• "La Lira lusitana de Manuel Curros Enríquez: un caso de traducción triangular." Versiones, inversiones. La traducción de poesía entre las literaturas ibéricas modernas y contemporáneas. Ed. Miguel Mochila, Trea, 2024.
• "Miguel de Unamuno and the Redemption of Antero de Quental," Revista Hispánica Moderna, Volume 77, Number 1, June 2024
• "João do Rio em Portugal: Moedas falsificadas e desleixo luso-brasileiro," João do Rio plural: Centenário de um acervo luso-brasileiro. Ed. Orna Messer Levin and Gilda Santos; 7 Letras; Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, 2022
• "The Double Face of Translation in Joan Maragall," Iberian and Translation Studies: Literary Contact Zones. Ed. Esther Gimeno Ugalde, Marta Pacheco Pinto, and Ângela Fernandes; Liverpool University Press, 2021
• "A Secondary Ghost: Gibraltar in La vida perra de Juanita Narboni, by Ángel Vázquez," TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, Volume 9, Issue 6, 2021
• “Figurations of the Negra in Gonçalves Crespo and Caetano da Costa Alegre,” Luso-Brazilian Review 56.2 (2019)
• “Iberianism’s Lessons for Iberian Studies,” Catalonia, Iberia and Europe. Ed. David Duarte and Giangiacomo Vale; Aracne editrice, 2019
• “Across the Waves”: The Luso-Brazilian Republic of Letters at the Fin de Siècle,”  Transatlantic Studies: Latin America, Iberia, and Africa. Ed. Cecilia Enjuto Rangel, Pedro García-Caro, Sebastiaan Faber, and Robert Patrick Newcomb; Liverpool University Press, 2019

REVIEWS, NOTES, AND MISCELLANEOUS (2019-PRESENT)    

• "An Interview with Cristina Martins." TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, Volume 12, Issue 1, 2024. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/93x7w73n
• Conceição Lima. No Gods Live Here (trans. David Shook), Portuguese Studies, 40(2), 2024                                                    
• Christian Claesson (ed.). España comparada: literatura, lengua y política en la cultura contemporánea, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, published 7 May 2024. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14636204.2024.2347729
• Rodrigo Lopes de Barros, Distortion and Subversion: Punk Rock Music and the Protests for Free Public Transportation in Brazil (1996-2011), Journal of Lusophone Studies, 8.2 (2024)
• Thayse Lima, Latino-americanizando o Brasil: a crítica literária e o diálogo transnacional, Brasil/Brazil, Vol. 35, No. 68, 2022
• M.G. Sanchez, Gooseman, Hispania, Volume 104, January 2021, Number 4
• Patrícia Lino, O Kit de Sobrevivência do Descobridor Português no Mundo Anticolonial, Journal of Lusophone Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2021)
• Mary L. Coffey and Margot Versteeg (eds.). Imagined Truths: Realism in Modern Spanish Literature and Culture, University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 90, no. 3, 2021
• Gustavo San Román, A Companion to José Enrique Rodó, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Vol. 98, Issue 5 (2021)
• M.G. Sanchez, Border Control and other Autobiographical Pieces, International Journal of Iberian Studies 33.1 (2020)
• "Entrevista a Trino Cruz." TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World, Fall 2019
• “Forward.” Anthology of Contemporary Gibraltar Poets. Ed. Felix Alvarez et al. Gibraltar: Independent Writers and Artists Project, 2019

SELECTED TRANSLATIONS

• Alfredo Bosi. "An Ideological Knot - On Interlaced Perspectives in Machado de Assis, Santa Barbara Portuguese Studies 2nd Ser., Vol. 11, "Alfredo Bosi," 2025. https://sbps.spanport.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/volume/Vol_11/Ideological%20Knot.pdf
• Alfredo Bosi. "The Parábola of the Latin American Avant-Gardes." Beyond Tordesillas: New Approaches to Comparative Luso-Hispanic Studies. Ed. Robert Patrick Newcomb and Richard A. Gordon, Ohio State, 2017. 137-48.
• _____. Brazil and the Dialectic of Colonization (University of Illinois Press, 2015)
• _____. Colony, Cult and Culture (UMass Dartmouth, 2008)
• Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis. "Six Crônicas on Slavery and Abolition," Portuguese Studies 33.1 (2017): 105-22.
• _____. "Reflections on Brazilian Literature at the Present Moment: The National Instinct," Brasil/Brazil vol. 26, no. 47/2013: 85-101.
• _____. "The New Generation," Journal of Lusophone Studies 1.2 (Autumn 2016): 262-308.
• Cláudia Castelo. "The Luso-Tropicalist Message of the Late Portuguese Empire." Media and the Portuguese Empire. Ed. José Luís García et al. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 217-34.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Joukowsky Outstanding Dissertation Award (Humanities), Brown University, 2008