I am a Professor of Spanish at Oklahoma State University where I teach all levels of Spanish language and literature, and conduct research on medieval Iberian Literature. I have been Head of the Department of Languages and Literatures since July, 2020. I joined the faculty in 2009.
My research engages theories of historical narrative and textual commentary to study the role of language and textual interpretation in the development of a hegemonic Castilian identity from the 13th to 15th centuries. I work primarily on Alfonso X’s General estoria, a history of the world compiled in the 1270s. I am currently writing a monograph tentatively entitled Writing Imperium: Narrative and Exegesis in the General estoria in which I explore the creation of a Latin, Christian, Vernacular identity for Castile and its newly conquered territories through the adaptation of Biblical and Ovidian material and their glosses and commentaries. I have also published on humanist historians such as Alonso de Palencia, Antonio de Nebrija, and Fernando del Pulgar.
Dept. of Languages and Literatures
102 Gundersen Hall
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
erik.ekman@okstate.edu