Research Bio

Michael Iarocci is a literary scholar whose research explores modern Spanish literature, aesthetics, and cultural history. He is best known for his book, Properties of Modernity: Romantic Spain, Modern Europe, and the Legacies of Empire, which examines how Spanish literature engaged with European modernity in the 19th century. His work integrates literary analysis, history, and critical theory to investigate how questions of nation, empire, and aesthetics shaped Spanish literature. Iarocci also studies Romanticism, realism, and the cultural politics of modern Spanish literature. His most recent book, The Art of Witnessing: Francisco de Goya's Disaster of War, examines the complexities of bearing witness to violence through visual art.

He is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Berkeley, former Chair of the department, and Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities.  His scholarship has appeared in Hispanic Review, MLN, RCEH, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and other leading journals. 

Research Expertise and Interest

modern Spanish literature and culture, critical theory, geopolitics of literature, aesthetics, transatlantic Hispanic studies, theory of the lyric, visual culture