Sarah Owens

Program Director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Professor of Spanish

Education

University of Arizona
Ph.D., Spanish

Research Interests

Professor Owens specializes in the writings of colonial and early modern Spanish nuns. Her research has taken her to the archives of Mexico, Spain, Chile, Peru, and the Vatican. 

Courses Taught

Her teaching interests include women writers of Latin America – from the colonial period to present day. She enjoys teaching new students in the First Year Experience and has developed a new course called The Border for that program.  She has taught several courses in the Masters of Education program and the Honors program, and often teaches Introduction to Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Dr. Owens is passionate about study abroad and has led College of Charleston students to Spain, Chile, and Cuba.

Intro to Hispanic Literature, Latin American Civ and Culture, Colonial Latin American Literature, and Women Writers of Latin America

Publications

In 2009, Professor Owens published an award-winning edition of a Spanish nun’s travel account called Journey of Five Capuchin Nuns. Her second book, Women of the Iberian Atlantic (2012), won the award for best Collaborative Project from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. Her third book, Nuns Navigating the Spanish Empire (University of New Mexico Press, 2017), was supported by a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a sabbatical from the College of Charleston. Her latest book, Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World: A Gendered Perspective, co-edited with Margaret Boyle (University of Toronto Press, May 2021), breaks new ground through its systematic focus on gender and sexuality as they relate to the delivery of healthcare, the practice of medicine, and the experiences of health and healing across early modern Spain and colonial Latin America.