McKenna Middleton joined the UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese in 2024 after completing her PhD in Spanish at UC Irvine with an emphasis in gender studies. Her research focuses on the intersection of motherhood studies and memory studies in 20th- and 21st-century Peninsular literature and film. Teaching is her biggest passion, and she works to foster an inclusive classroom community in which students can be creative and collaborative in the learning process.

Education

  • Ph.D. (2024) Spanish, University of California Irvine (Graduate Feminist Emphasis)
  • M.A. (2021) Spanish, University of California Irvine

Research

  • 20th and 21st Century Peninsular Literature
  • Women’s Writing
  • Motherhood Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • Memory and Dictatorship

Articles

  • Middleton, McKenna. “The Queer Effect of Matrilineal Genealogies in Pedro  Almodóvar’s Todo sobre mi madre (1999).” Revista 2i: Estudos de identidade e intermedialidade, 6.9 (2024): 87-98. https://revistas.uminho.pt/index.php/2i/article/view/5589.
  • Middleton, McKenna. “Salomé y la inclusión de la mujer en la historia.” La Revista El Cid, Journal of the Tau Iota Chapter. (2020): 67-74. https://web.citadel.edu/root/images/modern_languages/el_cid_2020_edition_xxx.pdf.

Dissertation

  • Middleton, M. R. (2024). Other Mothers: Matrilineal Genealogies and Maternal Memory in Contemporary Spanish Fiction. UC Irvine. ProQuest ID: Middleton_uci_0030D_19096. Merritt ID: ark:/13030/m5fv9vn9. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8j67w8h3.

Courses

  • Spanish 2-5: Elementary and Intermediate Spanish
  • Spanish 25: Advanced Spanish Composition
  • Spanish 150: Myth, Memory, and Revision in Spanish Women’s Writing
      • Examination of how contemporary Spanish women writers, from 1980s to present, reimagine myths, legends, genres, and history to challenge dominant cultural and literary traditions. Study contextualizes narratives with emphasis on how Spain’s transition to democracy and contemporary feminism affected women’s writing. Students analyze novels, short stories, and films that revise Greek myths, King Arthur legend, traditional fairy tales, detective fiction, and more. Study highlights how these authors use storytelling to problematize official histories and cultural myths, which allows for new and alternative expressions of gender, memory, and identity. Taught in Spanish.
  • Spanish 150: Mothers and Daughters in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film
      • Study explores examples of contemporary Spanish short stories, novels, and films that depict mother-daughter relationships. Study addresses concept of ideal figures of Spanish mother and daughter. Analysis of fictional representations of mothers and daughters, from Spain’s period of transition to democracy to present. Study asks how these stories reject or reinforce idealized or vilified representations, focusing on nuances of intergenerational mother-daughter interactions. Taught in Spanish.
  • Spanish 150: Contemporary Coming-of-Age Stories by Spanish and Catalan Women Writers
      • While history books might focus on how historically significant events affected masses of people, coming-of-age literature offers intimate portrait of daily life. Study looks at examples of Bildungsroman–coming-of-age stories–written by Spanish and Catalan women in 20th and 21st centuries. Analysis of how these protagonists mature their sense of self, and their understanding of world around them; as well as how their temporal and spatial context affects their growth and development. Study asks how these characters cope with loss and conflict; and how process of their character development is informed by their political and social context. Reading of novels and short stories in Spanish or Spanish translation of Catalan. Taught in Spanish.

Pronouns

she/her/ella