Dr. Hank Blume
Assistant Professor in the Department of World Languages & Cultures, Classics
Office: University Hall 310B
Phone: 740-368-3694
Email: hsblume@owu.edu
Dr. Blume received his Ph.D. in 2017 from The Ohio State University, where he subsequently served as a lecturer of Classics until 2021 when he began teaching at OWU.
Dr. Blume teaches Latin and Ancient Greek at all levels as well as courses (in English translation) on ancient literature, history, and culture, such as: Empire and Ethnicity in the Ancient World, Classical Mythology, The Twilight of Mediterranean Empires, and Gender and Sexuality in Classical Antiquity.
He has recently (2023) taken students abroad to Spain to study classical reception through the OWU Connection via a Theory-to-Practice (TPG) grant. He has also received two additional grants in his years at OWU. The first in 2022, which brought to external speakers to discuss the prejudices against women in capital penalty cases. The second in 2024, to develop a course on the nature of ethnicity and empire as seen in examples from southern Spain (Roman Baetica).
His research is broadly centered around mechanisms of social control in the Roman world. In particular, he studies the ways in which emotions are seen to affect political decision making in the Roman Republic as well as the legal rights of women in the Roman world. He also has an interest in the reception of classical literature which he shares with his colleagues in the Spanish program.
Dr. Blume is interested in innovative and collaborative pedagogical approaches to the study of classics and has developed courses that are meant to facilitate interdisciplinary work with other courses that are being taught at OWU.
He is currently the co-director of the Leland F. and Helen Schubert Honors Program.
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his animals and traveling.
Dr. Glenda Nieto Cuebas
Professor in the Department of World Languages & Cultures
Office: University Hall 203A
Phone: 740-368-3684
Email: gynietoc@owu.edu
Dr. Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas is a Professor of Spanish and the George and Louise Peters Professor of World Languages and Cultures. Originally from Puerto Rico, she earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Universidad Interamericana in San Germán and an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. She received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Before joining the faculty at Ohio Wesleyan University, she served as a Lecturer of Spanish at Amherst College.
Dr. Nieto-Cuebas's upper-level courses, publications, and research focus on Early Modern Spanish Literature, particularly 17th-century theatre and its contemporary productions. Aware of the challenges these texts can pose for undergraduate students, she often incorporates hands-on, project-based assignments to foster deeper understanding and provide unique, engaging experiences that would otherwise be difficult to access. She has designed numerous academic projects and mentored students with interests in Early Modern Spanish Theatre. These collaborations have included adapting, producing, and performing plays for live audiences; internships centered on translating and adapting medieval romances for professional shadow puppet productions; and securing Theory-to-Practice Grants and Student Independent Project Grants involving research, travel to theatre festivals in Spain and the U.S., and workshops with international theatre companies from Spain and Mexico. She has also co-presented with students at professional conferences.
Dr. Nieto-Cuebas is the co-editor of Social Justice in Spanish Golden Age Theatre (University of Toronto Press, 2021), and has authored several book chapters, articles, and interviews in peer-reviewed journals such as Comedia Performance, e-Humanista, Sixteenth Century Journal, Romance Quarterly, Romance Notes, Symposium: A Quarterly Journal of Romance Languages, Latin American Theatre Review, and the Journal of Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART).
Her current work includes pedagogical projects and publications that explore how experiential learning can help students engage with classical Hispanic theatre through non-traditional approaches. Most recently, she co-authored a monograph with Dr. Erin Cowling (MacEwan University), which explores how Latinx theatre practitioners adapt and produce 17th-century Hispanic texts for contemporary audiences. This work emphasizes the artists' lived experiences and socio-cultural realities as BIPOC creators. The book is forthcoming from the University of Toronto Press.
Dr. Nieto-Cuebas is co-director of the Ohio Wesleyan's Leland F. and Helen Schubert Honors Program.