性爱研究所

Sarah Finley

Sarah Finley

Associate Professor


(757) 594-7969

McMurran Hall 129

Biography

Education

  • Ph D in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky
  • MA in Hispanic Studies, University of Kentucky
  • BM in Vocal Performance, Converse College

Sarah Finley is Associate Professor of Spanish at 性爱研究所. Training in literature, musicology and vocal performance supports her research on sound and music in the early modern Hispanic world. Her book Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz is a pioneer exploration of sound in the work of Mexican poet and nun Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz (University of Nebraska Press, 2019). Finley鈥檚 second monograph Amplifications of Black Sound from Colonial Mexico: Vocality and Beyond (Vanderbilt University Press, 2024) is the first book-length study of Afro-descendant sound in viceregal Mexico or elsewhere in colonial Latin America. In addition, she has published articles and delivered lectures on auditory culture in early modern convents, Sor Juana鈥檚 transatlantic networks of lettered women and Afro-descendant sound in colonial Mexico. Grants from The Huntington Library, the Helmerich Center for American Research, the UCLA Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies and the Virginia Commission for the Arts have supported her work.

Research

Colonial Spanish American Literary and Cultural Studies
Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz
Sound Studies
Early Modern Hispanic Women
Race Studies

Selected Accomplishments

  • Award for Best Article, Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer en Espa帽a y las Am茅ricas (pre-1800). (2024)
  • Provost's Award for Faculty Excellence in Interdisciplinarity, 性爱研究所. (2022)
  • Provost's Award for Faculty Excellence in Teaching Writing, 性爱研究所. (2019)

  • Book, Scholarly-New
    (2024). Amplifications of Black Sound from Colonial Mexico: Vocality and Beyond. Critical Mexican Studies at Vanderbilt University Press.
  • Encyclopedia Article
    (2024). "Early Modern Women Writers of the Spanish Americas". The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2023). 鈥 鈥楥antemo, Pilico鈥: Sounding Race in Sor Juana鈥檚 villancicos鈥. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2023). 鈥淪or Juana and the Countess of Villaumbrosa". Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hisp谩nicos.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2022). 鈥 鈥樎縀nse帽ar M煤sica a un 脕ngel?鈥: The Countess of Villaumbrosa as Sor Juana鈥檚 Musical Patron in Romance 21.鈥. Revista de Estudios Hisp谩nicos. Volume, 56. Issue, 1. Pages, 29-50.
  • Book, Chapter in Scholarly Book-New
    (2022). 鈥淧atronage, Paratexts and the Poetic Voice in Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz鈥檚 Inundaci贸n cast谩lida (1689).鈥. Casa Vac铆a. Pages, 219-34.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020). 鈥淢谩s all谩 de la sonoridad: huellas del pensamiento musical en el convento de Jes煤s Mar铆a de M茅xico.鈥. Bolet铆n de Monumentos Hist贸ricos. Volume, 45. Pages, 68-82.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2020). 鈥淪ounding Feminine Intellect in the villancicos to St. Catherine of Alexandria (1691).鈥. Cal铆ope: Journal for the Society of Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry. Volume, 25. Issue, 1. Pages, 24-43.
  • Book, Scholarly-New
    (2019). Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz. University of Nebraska P, New Hispanisms Series. Pages, 252.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2018). "Exemplary sound and hearing in sensory treatises from the early modern Spanish-speaking world". The Senses and Society. Volume, 13. Issue, 2. Pages, 203-18.
  • Journal Article, Academic Journal
    (2016). 鈥淓mbodied Sound and Female Voice in Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz鈥檚 Canon: Romance 8 and El divino Narciso鈥. Revista de Estudios Hisp谩nicos. Volume, 50. Issue, 1. Pages, 191-216.

  • Sarah Finley, Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Society Annual Conference, "Performances of Race and Non-European Sound in New Spanish biombos," University of Maryland, College Park, MD. (2025)
  • Sarah Finley, Centering the Black Sacred Arts: Research, Education, and Public Life, "Afro-Diasporic Ritual Voices in the Colonial Mexican Archive: Decolonial Soundings," Yale University, New Haven, CT. (2025)
  • Sarah Finley, "Amplifications of Black Sound from Colonial Mexico: Vocality and Beyond," Charleston, SC. (2025)
  • Sarah Finley, Music in the Early Modern Spanish Americas, Performance Spaces, And Archives, "Sounding Indigenous Music from Colonial Mexico City," Pasadena, CA. (2025)
  • Sarah Finley, "Singing Hoarsely: Black Voices and Racialized Listening in Urban New Spain," Baltimore, MD. (2025)
  • Sarah Finley, Sixteenth Century Society Annual Conference, "Listening to Popular Music from Colonial Ixtacalco in Biombo con desposorio ind铆gena, mitote y palo volador," Toronto, Canada. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Beyond Interdisciplinarity: Women's Cultural Production Before 1800, "鈥楾us esposas dicen que se enmendar谩n鈥: Monjas, imaginaci贸n sonora y desastres naturales en la Ciudad de M茅xico, siglo XVII," Puebla, Mexico. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Latin American Studies Association Annual Meeting, "Roundtable participant in "Critical Mexican Studies, 2024: Approaches, Recent and Forthcoming"," Bogot谩, Colombia. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Sound Faith: Religion and the Acoustic World, 1400-1800, "The Sounds of Afro-Diasporic Ritual in Colonial Mexico," University of York (England) / Virtual. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Early Latin American Music Festival, "Hearing Diversity in Early Latin American Music," (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, "Roundtable participant in 鈥淧resent and Future of Hispanic Early Modern Women Studies: Beyond the Pauline Dictum.鈥," Chicago, IL. (2024)
  • Sarah Finley, American Musicological Society Annual Meeting, "Response to 鈥淧ower and Aurality in Colonial Latin America.鈥," Denver, CO. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Society for Renaissance and Baroque Hispanic Poetry, "Stage and Lyric in Black villancicos: Versions, Inversions, Repercussions," Chicago, IL. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, "Black castrati in the New Spanish Lyrical, Musical and Archival Imagination," Chicago, IL. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Approaches to Sound in the Early Modern Atlantic World Symposium, "Afro-descendant Harmonies in New Spain," Wm. Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA. (2023)
  • Sarah Finley, Seminario: Los conventos de monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la postmodernidad, "La condesa de Villaumbrosa, mecenas musical de sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz," Mexico City / virtual. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, 鈥淎ttending to Women, 1100-1800: Performance鈥, "Native, Black and European Women Performing Power in Religious Spaces in the Spanish Empire (17th and 18th centuries)," Newberry Library, Chicago, IL. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, XXVI Juan Bruce-Novoa Mexicanista Conference 鈥淪oundscapes of M茅xico.鈥, "Echolocation: Imagined Soundscapes of the Mexico Tenochtitlan Waterways," Irvine, CA. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, Feminine Soundscapes, "Remixing the Phoenix: Afro-descent in Rak Ric Rack!'s Tumba La-L谩-La: Los villancicos negros de sor Juana (2008)," Virtual. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, "Lyric and the Animating Black Body in New Spanish villancicos de negros," Dublin, Ireland. (2022)
  • Sarah Finley, Iberian Voices Series, "Listening to Race in Sor Juana鈥檚 Villancicos de negros: Urban Soundscapes and the Auditory Imagination," Virtual (Pasadena, CA). (2021)
  • Sarah Finley, South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference, "Sor Juana and the Countess of Villaumbrosa," Virtual. (2020)
  • Sarah Finley, The Academic Minute, "Hearing Voices of Women Past," (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association International Symposium, "Intersections of Theater, Poetry and Music in an 18th-Century Setting of Sor Juana鈥檚 Loa 380," Lisbon, Portugal. (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, "A Phoenix Reborn: A Concert of Previously Unedited Music for Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz鈥檚 Loa 380," 性爱研究所. (2019)
  • Sarah Finley, Sarah Gallo, Valentina Sorbera, Transatlantic Perspectives, "Singing with the Sisters: Sacred Vocal Music of New Spanish Women," Charleston, SC. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, 3er Congreso Internacional Los Conventos de Monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la post modernidad, "El 谩mbito sonoro del convento de Jes煤s Mar铆a," Templo de Santa Rosa de Viterbo, Quer茅taro, Mexico.. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, "Sounding Feminine Intellect in the villancicos to St. Catherine of Alexandria (1691)," New York, NY. (2018)
  • Sarah Finley, Modern Language Association Annual Meeting, "Death, Seen and Heard: Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz鈥檚 Inheritance of Musical Iconography in vanitas Still Lifes," Philadelphia, PA. (2017)
  • Sarah Finley, Forging Links Across Space and Time, "La oreja de mi entendimiento鈥: Alucinaciones auditivas en la Arboleda de los enfermos de Teresa de Cartagena," San Juan, Puerto Rico. (2016)
  • Sarah Finley, Seminario: Los conventos de monjas, arquitectura y vida cotidiana del virreinato a la postmodernidad., "Vislumbres sonoros: Nuevas aproximaciones a la representaci贸n del sonido en la obra de Sor Juana In茅s de la Cruz," Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City. (2016)
  • Sarah Finley, SAMLA 87-In Concert: Literature and the Other Arts, "Auditory Paradigms and Hearing in Sor Juana鈥檚 Canon: Primero sue帽o," Durham, NC. (2015)
  • Sarah Finley,, Cloistered Women鈥檚 Voices: Symposium on Sound, Song and Silence in Early Modern Convents, "Contrapuntal Voices: Silence in New Spanish Convents," Lexington, KY. (2015)