Kenneth Reeds


Professional Details

Title Chairperson
Department World Languages and Cultures
Office Sullivan Building 117D
Phone 978.542.7178
Email kenneth.reeds@salemstate.edu
Photo of Kenneth Reeds

Recent and Upcoming Courses

FYWL 100 First Year Seminar (world Languages & Cultures)
SPN 102 Elementary Spanish II
SPN 353 Readings From the Hispanic World
SPN 354 Spanish Composition Through Film
SPN 416 Latin American Cultures
SPN 501 Senior Seminar With Thesis
SPN 705 Seminar in Latin American and Us Latino Literatures
SPN 900 Mat Research Monograph

Professional Biography

Kenneth Reeds is an Associate Professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures. He graduated with a PhD in comparative literature from University College London. His research focuses on points where the Spanish-speaking cultures encounter English-language cultures, particularly in prose manifestations in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As of summer 2020, he is Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures. 

Professional Interests

Intercultural points of contact, literary elucidation of marginalized voices, Latin American culture and literature, comparative literature, European literature, literature from the United States, postcolonial studies, Spain, and Asturias

Selected Publications

Books:

Co-Editor (with Dr. Anna Rocca) of Women Taking Risks in Contemporary Autobiographical Narratives, Cambridge Scholarly Publishing (2013).  

Author of What is Magical Realism?: An Explanation of a Literary Style, The Edwin Mellen Press (2012)

Translation from Spanish to English of Caras B de la Historia del Video Arte en España.  eds. Nekane Aramburu and Carlos Trigueros.  Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación del Gobierno de España (2011). 

Articles:

"Arizona as Testing Ground for School Censorship" in Freedom of Expression Across Borders: Communication, Culture, and Language. ECU Academic Library Services (2023). 

Urban Pessimism and the Optimism between the Lines: Literary Latin American Cities and Roberto Bolaño’s 2666” in Hipertexto 14 (Verano 2011). 

"El civilizado sobre el bárbaro: el empleo de William Henry Hudson en la obra de Jorge Luis Borges."  Espéculo: Revista De Estudios Literarios de La Universidad Complutense de Madrid 47 (Marzo-Junio 2011). 

Magical Realism: A Problem of Definition.”  Neophilologus 90 (2006): 175-196. 

“Further Reading.”  A Companion to Magical Realism.  Eds. Stephen Hart and Wen-Chin Ouyang.  London: Tamesis, 2005.

Selected Presentations

“¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de realismo mágico?” Three-hour presentation at the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Diversity Day at Lasell College, 10 May 2014.  

“What Do You Find at the Road’s End?  Roberto Bolaño’s 2666.”  New England Council on Foreign Languages’ 2013 Annual Fall Conference at Wheaton College, Norton, MA.  9 November 2013.  

“Roberto Bolaño’s La literatura Nazi en América: Dark Humor as Satire and Literary Criticism.” New England Council on Foreign Languages’ 2012 Annual Fall Conference at Yale University in New Haven, CT. 3 November 2012

“Victims of Violence: Latin America’s Narrative Reaction to Magical Realism and its Reflection in Cinema.” New England Council on Foreign Languages’ 2011 Annual Fall Conference at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. 5 November 2011

“Cartoons and Art: Linking Language Students to a Larger World.”  MaFLA 44th Annual Fall Conference in Sturbridge, MA. 28 October 2011

“How to Read and Approach Cultural Differences and Stereotypes.”  American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ Convention and World Languages Expo in Boston, MA., 19 November 2010.  Presenting with Dr. Anna Rocca from Salem State University. 

“El civilizado sobre el bárbaro: el empleo de William Henry Hudson en la obra de Jorge Luis Borges.”  Coloquio Literario de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, 15 October 2010. 

“The South Was Our North.”  Lasell College, Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Diversity Day, 1 May 2010. 

“Urban Pessimism and the Optimism between the Lines: Literary Latin American Cities.”  Florida International University’s Seventh Biennial Conference on Spanish and Spanish-American Cultural Studies: Hispanic Literature and Film at the Bicentennial of Latin American Independences (1810-2010), 2-3 April 2010. 

“Roundtable Discussion on Magical Realism.”  University College London’s Festival of the Moving Image, 30 October 2007.  Other Roundtable Participants: Professor Gerald Martin, Film Directors Fernando Birri and Holly Aylett.

“Magical Realism’s Hermeneutics of Vagueness.”  University College London, University of London, 18 September, 2007. 

“The Civilized Through the Barbarous: Jorge Luis Borges on William Henry Hudson.”  The Institute for Germanic and Romance Studies, University of London.  Mediations and Meditations: Iberia and Latin America in Travel Writing Conference, 17 June 2006. 

“Magical Realism and the Negative Definition.”  HERMES International Literary Conference, Cascais, Portugal, 28 June 2005.