About
Dr. Isabel Álvarez Sancho is a Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oklahoma State University, where she specializes in contemporary Iberian cultural studies. Her research investigates temporal conceptualizations and identity formation in literature, music and cinema, particularly in the aftermath of transformative historical events that reshape collective worldviews. Her interdisciplinary approach combines political and cultural theory with sociolinguistic perspectives, with particular emphasis on minoritized languages such as Asturian.
Her scholarly contributions have examined exile narratives after the Spanish Civil War and cultural production after the 2008 financial crisis, with a focus on fantasy and sci-fi cinema. Her current research explores activism and contemporary interpretations of traditional music in Asturias. Her work has been featured in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, MLN, Catalan Review, Lletres Asturianes, and Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online, among other journals. She currently has three forthcoming edited volumes: a collection on Asturian Studies in the 21st century, and two companion volumes that study Asturian women writers and migrant Asturias. Her research has been supported by various grants and awards, including the Hispanex grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, and the Humanities, Arts and Design grant from Oklahoma State University.
Dr. Álvarez serves as President of Asturian Studies / SAnTINA, an international research network aimed to advance Asturian Studies globally. She organized the network’s second conference at Oklahoma State University in 2023. She is part of the Modern Language Association liaison group within the Asociación de Literatura y Cine Español Siglo XXI (ALCESXXI). She serves on the scientific committee of ARLAS (Archivu de la Represión Llingüística del Asturianu) and the Textos UEX collection at the Universidad de Extremadura. Additionally, she co-edits the Asturiana Studies book series by De Gruyter and directs the Spanish program at OSU. As co-founder and coordinator of Voces y versos-Tulsa, she promotes Spanish-language poetry and music performances in the local community.
Prior to her current position in the Department of Languages and Literatures at OSU, Dr. Álvarez held appointments as Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University and Spanish Lecturer at Univerzitet Džemal Bijedic´ in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She earned her PhD in Hispanic Cultural Studies from Michigan State University, and her BA and MA in Hispanic Philology from the Universidá d’Uviéu, Spain.
In addition to her academic work, Dr. Álvarez translates and writes creatively in Spanish, English, and Asturian. She brings this multilingual expertise to her teaching of Spanish language and culture at all levels.