Kevin Murphy is a Ph.D. student of Literature and Cultural Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Georgetown University. He holds a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Mary Washington where he also completed a PreK-12 teacher training program. After completing his undergraduate degree and obtaining his teaching license, he spent a few years working as an English teacher in São Paulo, Brazil before returning to the US to obtain his M.A. in Spanish language and literature from the University of Delaware.
Despite originally planning to conduct research on Latin American crime novels during his doctoral studies at Georgetown, he decided to switch fields and immerse himself in the world of medieval literature after having the opportunity to work on a digital edition of the Libro de buen amor as a research assistant during his first year in the program. In addition to taking several courses on medieval Iberian literature and culture, he has also completed coursework on Chaucer and global medieval literatures in the English Department.
He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation on modern and contemporary adaptations of the Cid legend and Spain’s medieval past in academia, pop culture and politics. Apart from working on his dissertation, he teaches Spanish and Portuguese language as well as Peninsular literature and culture courses at the undergraduate level.