Economies of Prestige: The Place of Iberian Studies in the American University

Abstract

This essay analyses the rise of Iberian cultural studies as the latest phase in the long struggle for status and prestige that has marked the institutional history of Hispanism in the American academy. I argue that Iberian cultural studies can in part be seen as an attempt to reinvent and reinvigorate a field that had long found itself marginalized, and to overcome the disciplinary ideologies and practices that contributed to that marginalization. The focus on prestige allows me to highlight the dynamics that help determine the institutional status of different fields: their cultural capital, their power and presence in terms of funding and personnel, as well as the level of their autonomy or dependence vis-à-vis other disciplines. Hispanists in the United States have been quite aware of the precarious institutional status of their field, and concerns about the status of the discipline, as well as efforts to boost it, have long been the explicit focus of discussions and debates in Hispanist journals, books, and conferences. My analysis takes the history of these discussions as one of its main points of departure. I especially focus on the years during which Hispanism was established as an academic discipline, roughly between 1915 and 1925, and on the impact of the Spanish Civil War and its immediate aftermath.

This essay analyses the rise of Iberian cultural studies as the latest phase in the long struggle for status and prestige that has marked the institutional history of Hispanism in the American academy. I argue that Iberian cultural studies can in part be seen as an attempt to reinvent and reinvigorate a field that had long found itself marginalized, and to overcome the disciplinary ideologies and practices that contributed to that marginalization. The focus on prestige allows me to highlight the dynamics that help determine the institutional status of different fields: their cultural capital, their power and presence in terms of funding and personnel, as well as the level of their autonomy or dependence vis-à-vis other disciplines. Hispanists in the United States have been quite aware of the precarious institutional status of their field, and concerns about the status of the discipline, as well as efforts to boost it, have long been the explicit focus of discussions and debates in Hispanist journals, books, and conferences. My analysis takes the history of these discussions as one of its main points of departure. I especially focus on the years during which Hispanism was established as an academic discipline, roughly between 1915 and 1925, and on the impact of the Spanish Civil War and its immediate aftermath.

Este ensayo analiza el auge de los estudios culturales ibéricos como la fase más reciente en la larga lucha por el prestigio académico que ha venido marcando la historia del hispanismo en la universidad estadounidense. Mi tesis central es que cabe ver los estudios culturales ibéricos en parte como un intento de reinvención y revitalización de un campo que desde hace mucho tiempo se ha sabido marginal, y como un intento por superar las ideologías y prácticas que contribuyeron a esa marginación. Este enfoque en el tema del prestigio permite resaltar los procesos que determinan el estatus institucional de las diferentes disciplinas académicas: su capital cultural, su poder y presencia en términos económicos y de plantilla, así como su nivel de autonomía o dependencia frente a otras disciplinas. Los hispanistas norteamericanos siempre han sido muy conscientes de la precaria posición institucional de su campo, y el archivo institucional se presenta como una fuente inagotable de debates en torno al prestigio de la disciplina, así como propuestas encaminadas a mejorarlo. El presente ensayo se fundamenta en un análisis histórico de esos debates. Me centro de forma particular en la década entre 1915 y 1925, en la que el hispanismo estadounidense se establece como disciplina académica moderna, y en el impacto sobre el campo de la Guerra Civil Española y sus consecuencias inmediatas.