Willem has been named a Galdosiana de Honor, a prestigious award that vanishingly few Americans have received. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
JACK WILLIAMS | CULTURE CO-EDITOR | jrwilliams@butler.edu
Some people pick up a novel set in Spain to escape the humdrum nature of their day jobs. Others are content to travel the world from the warm embrace of a comfy armchair. For Dr. Linda Willem, the Betty Blades Lofton Professor of Spanish, reading a translation was never enough.
She began teaching at Butler in 1987 and is now wrapping up her last semester before retirement. In that time, Willem has traveled to Spain more times than she can count, authored and edited a combined total of six books, published over 40 articles and was named a Galdosiana de Honor. Willem sat down with the Collegian to chat about the lessons she has learned and what the future holds.
THE BUTLER COLLEGIAN: What originally brought you to Butler?
LINDA WILLEM: I got my PhD from UCLA, and that’s one of the best programs in Spanish. But I’m a Midwestern person — I was born in Chicago; I lived in Milwaukee. I wanted to come back to the Midwest. I also had other criteria. I wanted a smaller, [co-ed] school that wasn’t religiously affiliated and had a strong liberal arts education. When I had a chance to apply for Butler, I [thought], “This is the whole package.”
TBC: What drew you to Spanish?
LW: Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to be a teacher. By the time I finished high school, I knew I wanted to [teach] Spanish. I [received] an education degree to teach undergraduate, but I loved [Spanish] literature so much that I went on for a master’s and then my PhD.
[On top of that] I’ve been traveling to Spain since I was 19 years old. Journeying to archives is part of the literary quest that I’m making. My area of specialization is 19th-century Spanish literature, and the big person there is Benito Perez Galdos. His archives are in the Canary Islands, where he was born. I’m sitting at the dining room table where Galdos ate while looking at his manuscripts, and when I take a break, I’m sitting in the garden that he sat in, and when I leave, I’m walking around the town where he drank coffee. You really can’t make a division between the literature and the context in which it was written. It’s all linked.
TBC: I’m getting enthusiastic just listening to you talk about Spain. How do you communicate that passion in the classroom?
LW: I try to contextualize everything I do. For example, I taught an honors course a long time ago on Galdos’ novel “Fortunata y Jacinta”, and it’s 1000 pages. I brought in a map from the 19th century, and the students plotted where all of the characters went. I gave them an idea of the social, economic, religious and historical context.
I also taught a 400 [level class] that covered 21st-century adaptations of 19th-century Spanish novels. During the writing of my book [on the same subject], I interviewed directors, playwrights and actors. They gave me scripts and videos of their performances, and then I brought that into the classroom so that the students could see the play [while] sitting in a classroom here — the same play that Spaniards had seen in Madrid.
TBC: What is a challenge you faced at Butler and how did you work through it?
LW: The first couple of years, I was frustrated because I taught three courses, which didn’t leave a lot of time to do my research. After about a year, I realized that I can focus on teaching during the school year and then really focus on research during breaks. I would order all the materials [I needed] and put them in a file. When summer came, it was like Christmas. I always give new faculty that tip, because that is something that has allowed me to [teach] lots of classes [and have a] successful career in terms of scholarship. Once I had that, everything was smooth sailing. I’ve absolutely loved my years at Butler.
TBC: What are you looking forward to after retirement?
LW: I love teaching. The fastest hours of the day are in the classroom, and I always leave with a smile on my face. I know many people’s jobs don’t allow them to have that pleasure in their work, and I feel very fortunate. But whenever I traveled [as a professor], it had to be between May and August. Now, I want to travel in the off-season, when it’s not 105 degrees in Madrid and there are not as many crowds.
I want to do research [when I’m not traveling]. I’m presenting a paper at a conference in Italy this summer. Butler [won’t] pay for it because I’ll be retired, but I’m going to do it myself. I’ve sent out some feelers about books already. I’d like to write another book on [the films of] Carlos Saura or Guillermo del Toro.
TBC: What Butler-specific advice do you have for your fellow professors?
LW: I would tell a faculty member to build a study abroad program, [because] Butler is much more friendly toward study abroad than most universities. I founded the Alcalá program in 2000 as part of a grant from the Spanish government. I took students seven times to Alcalá, and those were some of the most enriching times I’ve had with students. There are students that I visit regularly, and I go to people’s weddings and their kids’ christenings. You really build a good relationship when you take students abroad. It’s a different vibe than in the classroom. When you see them, you’re sharing a cup of coffee with them at a cafe; those are different kinds of relationships.