Dr. Xabier Granja Ibarreche
Welcome!
Dr. Granja Ibarreche is a Leadership Board Fellow and Director of Undergraduate Studies, who also works closely with the Artificial Intelligence Teaching Enhancement Initiative. His research interests focus on historical crime as well as 16th to early 18th-century Spanish peninsular literature. He specializes in Early Modern Spanish literature through a lens of socio-historical dynamics and the cultural tensions between individuals they produce. His work often deals with personal identities in the Golden Age, specifically analyzing the literary and sociopolitical motivations and implications of individual identity formation as exposed by both male and female writers. He is also engaged in research that focuses on variations in didactic literature from mid to late 17th century Spain, observing and contrasting how writers employ discourses of religion and traditional moral values to chastise what they consider irregularities in the coetaneous aristocracy. This investigative work also leads his work to look at early 18th-century writers, as their work results from the impact of 17th-century cultural changes that begin to form literary evidence of the beginnings of a pre-illustration period.
In addition to teaching and research on crime, law, and religion in early modern literature, Dr. Granja Ibarreche works on archival recovery and analysis of historical judicial documents involving violence and political/religious representation of societal groups. When offering grammar courses, his classes include strong service-learning components that link his teaching to the needs of the Tuscaloosa community, often via student-led translations of documents from English into Spanish for local non-profit organizations such as such as Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Alabama Museum of Natural History, Good Samaritan Clinic, One Roof, Schoolyard Roots, Turning Point, Tuscaloosa SAFE Center, and United Way of West Alabama.
As the departmental Director of Undergraduate Studies, he helps students figure out their program and course requirements, future schedules, study abroad initiatives, and especially drafting plans for upcoming semesters so they can sail smoothly towards completing their degree. He also works with several language programs within the department units to configure and reconfigure their program curriculum, dialoguing with university administration and staff to make changes and updates effective.
His achievements in research, teaching, and service were recognized in 2023 by the University of Alabama through an internal Leadership Board Fellowship award, a generous $15,000 grant dedicated to the improvement, growth, and elaboration of research, teaching, and service endeavors. He has also received external awards from Google, the Southeastern Conference, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Deusto, as well as internal UA ones from the Office of Academic Affairs, Academic Advisors Association, Capstone International Center, Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, and the Graduate School.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about Dr. Granja Ibarreche, check the different tabs on this page.
Mailing Address
Department of Modern Languages and Classics
200 B. B. Comer Hall
The University of Alabama
Box 870246
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Office Location: 224 B. B. Comer Hall
Email: xgranja@ua.edu
