Dr. Frédéric Conrod

Dr. Frédéric Conrod, Professor of Comparative Literature, teaches literature, film, and literary theory at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His research focuses on the connections between Early Modern European culture and the contemporary world, particularly through the study of visual culture, religion, desire, and cultural identity. A specialist in French and Hispanic studies, he has devoted much of his work to the Jesuits and the Baroque as key moments in the development of modern ways of seeing, narrating, and interpreting the world. Dr. Conrod began his university studies in British and American Literature and Culture at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle–Paris III before earning a B.A. in Religious Studies from Allegheny College. He later completed an M.A. in Spanish Literature and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature at the University of Colorado Boulder under the direction of Christopher Braider, a leading scholar of Early Modern literature, visual culture, and theory.

His first book, Loyola’s Greater Narrative, examines the influence of Jesuit spirituality and education on writers including Cervantes, Gracián, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Sade. He later co-edited Baroque Projections with Michael J. Horswell and explored the cultural connections between France and Argentina in Tango, Tarot, Terapia… y otros trances teatrales franco-argentinos. His latest book, Baroque Intelligence: From the Seventeenth Century to the Age of AI (Ethics International Press, 2026), brings this long-standing interest in Baroque culture into the present by exploring its connections with contemporary forms of knowledge and intelligence. His current research expands his work on Jesuit culture into the early modern Atlantic, with particular attention to Puerto Rico and the ways port cities brought religion, sexuality, migration, and colonial cultures into contact.

With a secondary area of expertise in Film Studies, Dr. Conrod has taught and published extensively on French, Spanish, and Argentine cinema, particularly on questions of sexuality, urban transformation, and cultural identity. His recent publications address Pedro Almodóvar, the Marquis de Sade and the Mediterranean, and the relationship between bilingualism and sexuality. He is also a creative writer and the author of the novels Dream Canyon and El hijo de Hernández and the short story “Las Viejas del Agua.” Across his scholarship, creative work, and teaching, his comparative approach explores how ideas and cultural forms travel across languages, periods, and places—and how the past continues to shape the ways we understand the present.

SCHOLARSHIP/RESEARCH/CREATIVE ACTIVITY:

Journal Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals:

“Traduire le catholicisme méditerranéen : résistances culturelles et réception anglophone de Juliette (1797–1801).” Dalhousie French Studies, forthcoming Nov. 2026. 3-17. Print.

“Almodóvar’s Baroque Transitions in the Early Films.” Humanities 14: 1, Special Issue: Baroque Tragedy and the Cinema, January 2025. 1-16. Print/Digital.

“American Meccas of Social Pornography.” Dogma: Revue de Philosophie et de Sciences Humaines, Volume 28, Summer/Fall 2024. 210-219. Print/Digital. 

“Hombre, Claro… A Reflection on Spanish Cultural Narcissism.” Results of Scholarly Work in Psychology, Criminology and Philosophy, Volume 4 (Issue 2), 2023. 104-117. Print/Digital.

“The Old House on the Hill: an American Gothic Landmark of Social Displacement and Estrangement in The Addams Family and Psycho/Bates Motel.” Baudrillard Now, Volume 4 (Issue 1), 2023. 55-70. Print/Digital. 
 
“Vuelos traumáticos, Padres imaginarios y Burguesía Neurótica en Relatos Salvajes (2014) de Damián Szifrón.” Journal Ética y Cine, Volume 8, (March 2018): 25-53. Print.

“The Jesuit Differential: the Relativity of Truth and Lies in Pierre Corneille and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.” Transitions: Journal of Franco-Iberian Studies, Volume 11 (Fall 2016). 

“The Great Collector: Ribadeneira’s Hagiography of Ignatius Loyola as a 'Struggle Against Dispersion'." Hispanic Review. Volume 81, 1 (2013): 1-16. Print.

 “Imaginary Itineraries to the Catholic South: from Voltaire’s Iberian Desolation to Sade’s Inverted Rosary.” 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era. Volume 19 (2012):  277-294. Print.
 
"From the Roman Baroque to the Indian Jungle: Francis Xavier's Letters from Goa, or the Construction of a God." Laberinto: an Electronic Journal of Early Modern Hispanic Literatures and Culture. Volume 6 (2012): 84-114. Web. 

“Castrating the Body of Police: Snapshots of an Impotent Institution in Almodóvar’s Early Films.” Canadian Journal of Film Studies. Volume 21, 1 (Spring 2012): 104-121. Print.
 
“Face-to-face with the Dying Priest: Dialogue between a Libertine and a Pope in Histoire de Juliette.” Literature and Theology. Volume 24, 4 (December 2010): 331-344. Print.
 
“La creación de un marco del adentro en los Desengaños Amorosos de María de Zayas.” Compostella Aurea. Volume 7 (2011): 165-170. Print. 
 
“Exilios en Sentido Inverso: España como espacio fronterizo en Exils de Tony Gatlif (2005).” Quaderns de Filología. Volume 12 (2007): 195-209. Print.
 
“Producción y Regeneración en Le Bonheur est dans le Pré de Etienne Chatiliez (1995).”  Transitions : Journal of Franco-Iberian Studies. Volume 1 (2005): 110-124. Print.
 
“Cómo nacen los monstros: el Mundo en Loyola, Cervantes y Gracián.” Armas y Letras. Volume 49 (2005): 17-35. Print.
 
“Babel contra el Panóptico: una confrontación con Madrid en Doña Perfecta de Galdós.” Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies. Volume 2 (Fall 2004): 61-81. Print.