Overview
Rocío's research explores female sovereignty in early modern drama, with a focus on how English and Spanish plays stage the gendered contradictions of political power. More broadly, she approaches the stage as a culturally significant site for reconfiguring sovereignty and gender in ways that official political discourse could not.
Her dissertation situates Shakespeare alongside Iberian dramatists such as Calderón and Coello to trace how both traditions, in different yet overlapping ways, engaged the cultural and political stakes of female sovereignty. At Cornell, she has taught courses in writing, literature, and medical humanities, with a strong commitment to inclusive pedagogy and cultural studies approaches to questions of identity, power, and belonging.
Research Focus
- Early Modern Drama (England and Spain)
- Sovereignty, Gender, and Political Theology
- Law and Political Thought
- Poetics, Performance, and Critical Theory