
Erica Cobb
New Cabell Hall 441
Office Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri 10:00-11:00am, 12:00-1:00pm, & by appt
Education
Ph.D., Spanish, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.A., Spanish, The Ohio University
B.A., Spanish, Fine Arts, The Ohio University
Biography
I have lived, worked and/or studied in Australia, England, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico and the United States. I love being surrounded by history, walking in the footsteps of historical authors, and sharing that joy with my students, inspiring them to do the same through extensive reading across all genres and time periods as well as study abroad. While my background is in the Spanish Golden Age, I currently teach and specialize in translation, mainly of poetry and theatre of all time periods. I am interested both in the themes of identity and performance, the way in which we define ourselves and present ourselves to the world around us, as well as the idea of responsibility, both in terms of what we owe to each other and to the environment in which we live. I teach all levels of Spanish language and literature, but most especially enjoy teaching poetry and translation. To this end I direct the Portavoz Project, a revolving collective of both current and former students, passionate about translation, who meet regularly throughout the semester to translate contemporary or never before translated works of theatre. These are done with the aim of publication and performance. I also mentor DMP students who wish to work with translation.
Outside of my work for UVA, I freelance translate and have three upcoming publications with Valparaiso Editions for three works of translated poetry, two by Mexican poet Miguel Ángel Galván and one by award winning Spanish poet, Ramón Andrés.
Publications
Upcoming 2024 publications with Valparaíso:
Los árboles que nos quedan / The Trees We Have Left (Ramón Andrés, Trans. Erica Cobb)
Acerca del olvido / On Oblivion and Other Poems (Miguel Ángel Galván, Trans. Erica Cobb)
Espuma inútil de los días / Useless Froth of Daydreams (Miguel Ángel Galván, Trans. Erica Cobb and Max Ritterband)