Susan Castillo

Background

Susan Castillo was born on March 15, 1948 in Jackson, Mississippi, United States to the family of Paul and Joree (Pierce) Parsons.

Education

Susan Castillo attended Millsaps College and in 1969 graduated from there with a bachelor's degree. Then, she enrolled at Oporto University to receive a Master of Arts which was followed by a Doctor of Philosophy in 1989 in modern language and literature.

Career

Susan Castillo started her academic career at the University of Porto in 1978 as a lecturer. After 16 years, she was appointed to the position of Vice principal for international relations at Fernando Pessoa University where successfully worked till 1996.

Then, Castillo moved to Scotland. She spent there the next 10 years having joined Glasgow University academic team. Susan started as lecturer, was promoted to reader, and became John Nichol professor of American literature.

Since 2006, Castillo has been Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor of American Studies at King's College in London. Besides, she has held the position of Vice president at the National Conference of University Professors.

Moreover, Castillo is a poet. From 2003 she has published three collections of poems: The Candlewoman’s Trade, Abiding Chemistry, and Constellations.

Achievements

• In 2012 Susan Castillo has been awarded a prestigious Honorary Fellowship by the British Association of American Studies.
  
  The award recognises Professor Castillo’s record of interdisciplinary scholarship across the fields of American literature, history, sociology, gender studies, political science, anthropology, and the history of art. She sits on the Executive Boards of the International American Studies Association, the National Conference of University Professors, and the British Association for American Studies.
  
  Castillo's co-edited anthology The Literatures of Colonial America was described as a book that may "model a new kind of early American studies that reads beyond the U.S. nation and change the field's object of study."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Literatures of Colonial America

    (Compiled in response to emerging transnational perspectiv...)

    2000
  • Notes from the Periphery: Marginality in North American Literature and Culture

    (In recent years, the traditional literary canon has come ...)

    1995
  • Engendering Identities 1996
  • Native American Women in Literature and Culture 1997

• Poems collection

  • Abiding Chemistry

    (These are decided, intelligent and confident poems. They ...)

    2015

Views

Castillo believes strongly in equal opportunities for women, not only as in the professional arena, but in the hope that her granddaughters will not have to face the barriers and difficulties Susan's own generation faced.

Quotations: "It’s hard to be honest about slavery and cruelty on the Southern life without falling into the ‘voyeuristic’ discourse."

"Most of my writing, whether scholarly or creative, is about crossing borders of some sort, whether linguistic, geographical, or racial. This may be due to my own rather unusual background: I grew up in the American South, was married to a Spaniard, and lived in Portugal for many years before coming to Scotland. In my own life, it feels quite normal to juggle languages, countries, worldviews. If there is one underlying motif in my work, it is that these border crossings, though not always easy, are a source of wonder, creative ferment, and delight."

Membership

• The Salzburg Seminar in American Studies , Austria

• High Wealden poets , United Kingdom

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Carole Bromley: "Like all the best ideas you wonder why no-one has thought of this before. Here is a sequence structured around the signs of the zodiac; intelligent, witty, quietly knowledgeable, by turns tender and sexy, Susan Castillo Street’s poems are a delight. She breathes life into ancient myths and her gods are so alive with their 21st century language, you half expect them to leap from the page."
  
  From the JPL's review: "Accessible in form, sensitive to the music of vowel and consonant, higher and lower tones accenting the lines, the poems of Susan Castillo Street are direct, evoking nuances and shades of loving that the reader can feel."

Interests

• Writing, travel, gardening, native American culture, American colonial literature

Connections

On May 28, 1969 Susan married Federico Perez Castillo and moved to Portugal. They have two children: Paul and Cristina. After 29 years together, Susan and Federico divorced. In 2001 Susan married Jonathan Street, a famous British novelist.

Father:

Paul E. Parsons

Mother:

Joree (Pierce) Parsons

Daughter:

Cristina Castillo

Son:

Paul Castillo

Ex-husband:

Federico Perez Castillo

husband:

Jonathan Street

colleague:

Ivy Schweitzer

colleague:

Victor Da Rosa

References

• The Salamander and the Raven Personal blog
  2012