Research and Teaching Interests:

Dr Morcillo's current research focuses on sexual politics under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. She is particularly interested in how the concept of culture is bound up with those of modernity and national identity under authoritarian regimes. Her book in progress, "The Seduction of Francoist Spain. The Female Body at the center of Sexual Politics," is about the symbolic relationship between the Spanish body politic and the allegorical female body of the nation. It is also about the metaphorical use of gender imagery in political discourse. With this study she intends to shed light on our understanding of gender relations by utilizing the somatic metaphors present in the Francoist political discourse and the counter imagery produced by the popular media in the 1950s and 1960s.

Dr Morcillo's first book True Catholic Womanhood. Gender Ideology in Franco's Spain (Northern Illinois University Press, 2000) focused on formal educational structures, specifically the intersection of higher learning and gender as a means of the Francoist state to shape individual and national identities.

Dr. Morcillo teaches courses in Women's Studies and European history. Her upper division and graduate courses in both fields include courses on the history of women in modern Spain; the history of the body, sexuality, and gender roles in Western culture; nationalism and gender in totalitarian regimes.

Curriculum Vitae

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