Ricardo Padrón is a Professor of Spanish who studies the literature and culture of the early modern Hispanic world, particularly questions of empire, space, and cartography. His recently published monograph, The Indies of the Setting Sun: How Early Modern Spain Mapped the Far East as the Transpacific West (Chicago 2020) examines the place of Pacific and Asia in the Spanish concept of “the Indies.” His research for this book has taken him to China, Japan, and the Philippines, and has been sponsored by U.Va.’s Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, Arts & Sciences at U.Va., and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also published on early modern poetry and historiography, and on the mapping of imaginary worlds in modern times. Prof. Padrón is an active member of the Renaissance Society of America, and is currently serving as a member of its Board of Directors. He is also serving as Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish. During the Spring of 2022, Prof. Padrón spent part of his research leave as a visiting professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Education
Ph.D., Harvard
M.A., Harvard
A.M., Chicago
B.A., University of Virginia
Publications
Books
The Indies of the Setting Sun: How Early Modern Spain Mapped the Far East as the Transpacific West (University of Chicago Press, 2020).
The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815: A Reader of Primary Sources in English Translation, co-edited with Christinia Lee (Amsterdam University Press, 2020)
The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature, and Empire in Early Modern Spain (University of Chicago Press, 2004)
Recent Articles
“Confusions of Identity: The Spanish Encounter with Japanese Religion and the Glass Ceiling of Eurocentrism,” Revista de estudios hispánicas. (Forthcoming). 28 pages; 8131 words.
“América, las Indias, y el Pacífico en el siglo XVI.” Miradas conectadas y renovadas. A propósito del X Congreso Internacional de Etnohistoria. Quito: Editorial FLACSO. (Forthcoming) 32 pages; 11,360 words.
“The Philippines and the Body Politic: The Transpacific Cartography of Vicente de Memije” in Transpacific Engagements: Exchange, Translation, and Visual Culture in Entangled Empires, 1565–1898, Edited by Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, et. al. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2020. 49-59. 4554 words.
“America y el espacio transmagellanico, siglo XVI,” Magallania (Chile): Volumen especial El viaje de Magallanes. 2020. 79-102. 11,615 words.
“Mundus Novus - China - Terra Australis: Successive New World Fantasies” Shores of Vespucci A historical Research of Amerigo Vespucci's Life and Contexts in Collaboration with Francisco Contente Domingues, edited by Angelo Cattaneo. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2018. 18 pages; 5837 words.