Kelly - Ivan Allen College - Georgia Institute of Technology

IVAN ALLEN COLLEGE
STANDARD FORMAT FOR RÉSUMÉS
FOR
REAPPOINTMENT, PROMOTION AND TENURE
_________________________________
Kelly R. Comfort
Assistant Professor of Spanish
School of Modern Languages
I. EARNED DEGREES
Ph.D. University of California, Davis June 2005
Comparative Literature with a designated emphasis in Critical Theory
Dissertation Title: “Art(ist) for Art’s Sake or Art(ist) for Capital’s Sake: Aesthetic Production and
Consumption in Turn-of-the-Century Literature.”
B.A. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill May 1997
Comparative Literature and International Studies with a designated emphasis in Social
Theory and Cross-Cultural Studies and a concentration in Environmental Studies
II.
EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor Georgia Institute of Technology (2005 – present)
Associate Instructor University of California, Davis (2001 – 2002, 2004 – 2005)
Teaching Assistant University of California, Davis (1998 – 2000, 2004)
Teaching Assistant Consultant University of California, Davis (2001 – 2002, 2004 – 2005)
Academic Director The School for International Training (2003)
English as a Second AmeriCorps Corporation for Natl. Service (1995 – 1996)
Language Instructor & The Chapel Hill Women’s Center
Literacy Instructor AmeriCorps Corporation for Natl. Service, (1995 – 1996)
The Community Literacy Initiative,
The Hargrave Reading Center,
and The Interfaith Homeless Shelter
III. TEACHING
A. COURSES TAUGHT
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Modern Languages:

Spring 2009
Conversation II SPAN 3102 – E 24 students
Spanish Service-Learning SPAN 4150 – B 22 students
Fall 2008
Hispanic Community Internship SPAN 4813 – B 4 students
Spring 2008
Conversation I SPAN 3101 – A 23 students
Intercultural Seminar in Spanish SPAN 4183 – D 5 students
Fall 2007
Service/Learning in the Hispanic Community SPAN 4183 – A 19 students
Latin American Short Story SPAN 4152 – F 23 students
Spring 2007
Conversation II SPAN 3102 – C 19 students
Conversation II SPAN 3102 – D 22 students
Fall 2006
Conversation I SPAN 3101 – B 23 students
Latin American Short Story SPAN 4152 – F 21 students
Spring 2006
Conversation II SPAN 3102 – A 27 students
The Latin American Short Story SPAN 4152 – H 26 students
Fall 2005
Intermediate Spanish I SPAN 2001 – A 21 students
Intermediate Spanish I SPAN 2001 – C 23 students
Conversation I SPAN 3101 – H 23 students
B. INDIVIDUAL STUDENT GUIDANCE
Undergraduate Research SPAN 4699 – A 6 students
Special Problems SPAN 4091 – A 1 student
Special Topics SPAN 4813 – B 1 student
C. OTHER TEACHING ACTIVITIES
New Courses Developed:
• SPAN 4813-B, “Hispanic Community Internship”: this course, which was offered for the first time
in fall 2008, placed four students in Spanish-speaking internship positions with the Latin American
Association, the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Turner Broadcasting and CNN
International.
• SPAN 4813-D, “Intercultural Seminar in Spanish”: this course was co-designed and co-taught by
Dr. Kelly Comfort and Dr. Vicki Galloway. It functions as a capstone course in Modern Languages
for students who have spent time abroad in a Spanish-speaking country, especially those students
completing the International Plan. Approved by IUCC.

• SPAN 4150 – B, “Spanish Service-Learning in the Hispanic Community”: this course, which was
offered for the first time in Fall 2007, explores the issues and concerns of the Latino population in the
US in general and Atlanta in particular through the combination of in-class discussion and out-ofclass
service projects. Students complete individually-designed volunteer projects in the local
Hispanic community and gain first-hand experience of Hispanic cultures and practice their Spanish in
real-life, authentic settings. Approved by IUCC.
IV. SCHOLARLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
A. PUBLISHED BOOKS AND PARTS OF BOOKS
A1. BOOKS
• Art and Life in Aestheticism: De-Humanizing and Re-Humanizing Art, the Artist, and the Artistic
Receptor. Ed. Kelly Comfort. Hampshire, U.K. and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. (256
pages)
A2. PARTS OF BOOKS
• Comfort, Kelly. “Reflections on the Relationship between Art and Life in Aestheticism.”
Introduction. Art and Life in Aestheticism: De-Humanizing and Re-Humanizing Art, the Artist, and
the Artistic Receptor. Ed. Kelly Comfort. Hampshire, U.K. and New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2008: 1-20.
B. REFEREED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
• “The Clash of the Foreign and the Local in Martí and Carpentier: From ‘Misplaced Ideas’ to
‘Trasculturation.’” Hipertexto. (Forthcoming)
• “Art for the Artist’s Sake or Artist for Sale: Lulu’s and Else’s Failed Attempts at Aesthetic Self-
Fashioning.” Women in German Yearbook: Feminist Studies in German Literature and Culture. 22
(2006) 189-210.
• “Colonial Others as Cuba’s Protonational Subjects: The Privileged Space of Women, Slaves and
Natives in Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab.” MESTER: Journal of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. 32
(2003) 179-194.
C. OTHER PUBLICATIONS
• Comfort, Kelly. “The Critic as Artist and Liar: The Reuse and Abuse of Plato and Aristotle by
Wilde.” The Wildean. 32 (2008).
D. PRESENTATIONS
Conference Papers Presented:
• “From the Visual to the Textual: Literary Recycling of Art in British Aestheticism and Latin
American Modernismo.” 34 th Annual Southern Comparative Literature Association “Comparative

Literature and World Literature: Textual, Visual, Aural Interconnections and Interfaces” Conference.
Auburn, Alabama. October 2-4, 2008.
• “Martí’s ‘Nuestra América’ versus Darío’s ‘Unión Latina’: Constructing Pan-American or Pan-Latino
Identity vis-à-vis the United States.” XXVII International Congress of the Latin American Studies
Association (LASA 2007), “After the Washington Consensus: Collaborative Scholarship for a New
América.” Montreal, Canada. September 5-8, 2007.
• “The Place of the Foreign in Cuba: ‘Misplaced Ideas’ or ‘Trasculturation.’” The American
Comparative Literature Association’s 2007 Annual Meeting on “Trans, Pan, Inter: Cultures in
Contact.” Puebla, Mexico. April 19-22, 2007.
• “Liberating the Artist from Confinement: Modernist Escapism in Darío’s ‘El pájaro azul’ and ‘El velo
de la reina Mab.’” Hofstra Cultural Symposium on “Rubén Darío: 90 Years Later.” Hofstra
University, New York. October 27-28, 2006.
• “Aestheticism: Rehumanizing or Dehumanizing Art, the Artist, and the Artistic Receptor.” The
American Comparative Literature Association’s 2006 Annual Meeting on “The Human and Its
Others” at Princeton University. March 23-26, 2006.
• “The Critic as Artist and Liar: The Reuse and Abuse of Plato and Aristotle by Wilde.” CSU Long
Beach’s 41 st Annual Comparative Literature Conference on “Ancient and Modern Narrative:
Intersections, Interactions, and Interstices.” March 9-11, 2006.
• “Transatlantic Exchange: The Artist as Worker, the Commodity as Art in Rubén Darío and J.K.
Huysmans.” Stanford University’s “Literature, Philosophy, and Commerce in Europe and the
Americas, 1750-1900” Conference, April 7-9, 2005.
• “Unamuno’s Niebla: An Examination of the Interplay Between Aestheticism and Existentialism in
the Self-Conscious Novel.” Saint Louis University Madrid’s “Unstable Realities, Unstable Identities”
Colloquium. June 20, 2003.
• “Colonial Others as Cuba’s Protonational Subjects: The Privileged Space of Women, Slaves and
Natives in Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab.” Northeast Modern Language Association 34th Annual
Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. March 6-9, 2003.
• “Art for Art's Sake or Art for Money's Sake: Aestheticism as a Battle between Nietzsche and Marx.”
University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s International Marxism 2000 Conference. September 21-24,
2000.
• “Authorial Representation and Narratological Self-Representation in Arthur Schnitzler’s Fräulein
Else.” Valdosta State University’s 5th Annual Women’s Studies Conference on “(Re)Presenting
‘Woman.’” March 2-4, 2000.
E. OTHER SCHOLARLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
PUBLISHED BOOK REVIEWS
• Book Review. José Asunción Silva y la ciudad letrada. By José Jesús Osorio. Bulletin of Hispanic
Studies 85.2 (2008): 256-7.

V. SERVICE
A. PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
A.1 Manuscript Review:
• Peer reviewer for the sixth edition of Brújula: Revista interdisciplinaria sobre estudios latinoamericanos
(“Arte y encuentros.” Eds. Ana Alonso Minutti and Juan Manuel Portillo)
A. 2 Conference Seminars/Panels/Sessions Organized and Chaired:
• “Foreign Attraction or Repulsion: National and Literary Perspectives of the Latin American Writer
Abroad.” Seminar Co-Organizer. “Colonial and Postcolonial Encounters: The Latin American Writer
in the American Context” Session Chair. “Return to Europe: Exile, Identity, and the Latin American
Expatriate Writer.” Session Co-Chair. The American Comparative Literature Association’s 2007
Annual Meeting on “Trans, Pan, Inter: Cultures in Contact” in Puebla, Mexico. April 19-22, 2007.
• “Nuestra América, nuestra literatura: National and Literary Perspectives of the Latin American Writer
Abroad.” Panel Co-Organizer. XXVII International Congress of the Latin American Studies
Association (LASA 2007), “After the Washington Consensus: Collaborative Scholarship for a New
América.” Montreal, Canada. September 5-8, 2007.
• “Aestheticism: Rehumanizing or Dehumanizing Art, the Artist, and the Artistic Receptor.” Seminar
Organizer. The American Comparative Literature Association’s 2006 Annual Meeting on “The Human and
Its Others” at Princeton University. March 23-26, 2006.
B. CAMPUS CONTRIBUTIONS
Georgia Tech Service:
• Modern Languages Representative on the Study Abroad Committee, 2007-2008
• Member of the Modern Languages Search Committee in Spanish, 2007-2008
• Founder and Faculty Advisor of Gringos y Latinos: Atlanta’s Spanish Service Society (G.L.A.S.S.S.),
a new Georgia Tech student organization dedicated to providing community outreach services to
Atlanta’s growing Hispanic population
• Member of the Modern Languages Capstone Course Development Committee, 2006-07.
• Coordinator, Course Scheduling for Spanish Unit
• Fulbright Interview Committee Member, 2006
• Organized campus visit of Dr. Vanessa Pérez for “Emerging Hispanic Populations,” Modern
Language Speaker Series
• Represented School of Modern Languages in visit to Monterrey Tec to explore future study abroad
possibilities for Georgia Tech students
• Promoted the Spanish-Speaking Students Organization’s bimonthly tertulias (conversation hours)
UC Davis Pedagogy Workshops
• “Creating Student-Centered Syllabi and Lesson Plans.” TA Consultant 2005 Spring Workshop
Series, UC Davis.

• “Assessment and Student Self-Reflection.” TA Consultant 2005 Spring Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Recognizing and Reacting to Diverse Learning Styles and Cognitive Levels.” TA Consultant 2005
Spring Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Ace Your Job Application: Putting Together an Effective Teaching Portfolio.” TA Consultant 2005
Winter Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Teaching: A Value-Laden Practice.” TA Consultant 2002 Spring Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Critical Pedagogy.” TA Consultant 2002 Spring Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Teaching to Different Learning Styles.” TA Consultant 2002 Winter Workshop Series, UC Davis.
• “Approaches in Teaching Major Works of Contemporary World Literature.” Department of
Comparative Literature TA Training, UC Davis. Fall 2001.
• “What Should Teachers Do to Prevent Plagiarism?” Program in College Teaching Roundtable
Meeting, UC Davis. Spring 2000.
C. OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS
• “Preparando a su hijo/a para la universidad: Ayudando con la transición entre la escuela secundaria y
la universidad.” Invited Speaker at the 2007 Latino Youth Leadership Conference. Latin American
Association. Atlanta, Georgia. October 27, 2007.
• “Spanish Service-Learning in the Hispanic Community” Course Presentation and “Using Innovative
Courses to Spark Learning” Panel Participation. Celebrating Teaching Day Event. Georgia Tech.
March 11, 2008.
V. GRANTS AND CONTRACTS
A. INVESTIGATOR
• Recipient of Ivan Allen College Incentives for Seeking Extramural Research Funding (ISERF)
Awards in Summer 2008 ($2,500)
• Recipient of Ivan Allen College Incentives for Seeking Extramural Research Funding (ISERF)
Awards in Summer 2007 ($2,500)
• Recipient of Ivan Allen College Incentives for Seeking Extramural Research Funding (ISERF)
Awards in Summer 2006 ($2,500)
• Recipient of the Georgia Tech Foundation Small Grants in April 2007. Grant funds used for
international conference travel. ($2,100)
• Recipient of the Georgia Tech Foundation Small Grants in September 2007. Grant funds used for
international conference travel. ($2,400)

• Recipient of a CIBER Faculty Curricular Development Award in Summer 2008 for planning and
preparation of SPAN 4XXX – Hispanic Caribbean Voices from Abroad: Literature of Exile and
Immigration from the Islands to the Diasporas, a new course that examined the ways in which
Hispanic Caribbean authors from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic reflect on the
experiences of exile and (im)migration from abroad. ($3,000)
• Recipient of a CIBER Faculty Curricular Development Award in Spring 2008 for planning and
preparation of SPAN 4XXX (“Hispanic Community Internship”), a new course that would provide
selected Georgia Tech students of Spanish with the opportunity to earn academic credit for
internships completed in local Hispanic agencies and companies. ($3,000)
• Recipient of a CIBER Faculty Curricular Development Award in Spring 2007 for planning and
preparation of SPAN 4813 (“Service/Learning in the Hispanic Community”), a new course that will
provide Georgia Tech students of Spanish the opportunity to combine service learning with language
immersion and increased social and cultural awareness as they conduct community service projects
aimed at meeting the diverse needs of Atlanta’s growing Hispanic population. ($3,000)
• International Plan Course Development Funding received to support the creation of a Modern
Languages Capstone Course. ($1,500)
• Teaching Resources Center Curriculum Development Grant to revise the Comparative Literature 3
(“The Modern Crisis”) Handbook and to make it available digitally. Explored major authors and
works of the Modern period and compiled relevant secondary sources related to primary texts by
Goethe, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Freud, Kafka, Conrad, Woolf, and Beckett. UC-Davis ($3,000)
VI. HONORS AND AWARDS
• Invitation to present on Spanish Service-Learning Course and participate in “Using Innovative
Courses to Spark Learning” Panel at the Celebrating Teaching Day Event.
• Innovative Pedagogical Methods on Service-Learning cited in the fall 2007 issue of The Classroom,
the annual newsletter on teaching and learning published by the Center for the Enhancement of
Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Georgia Tech, as well as the December 2007 issue of the Ivan
Allen College newsletter.
• Teaching Assistant Consultants Program Fellowship. UC Davis, 2004-2005, 2000-2001.
• Teaching Resources Center Curriculum Development Grant. UC Davis, Summer 2003.
• Comparative Literature Grant Recipient. UC Davis, Fall 2002.
• Selected to President’s Undergraduate Fellowship Selection Committee. UC Davis, 2001-2002.
• Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. UC Davis, 1999-2000.
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) University Summer Course Scholarship, 1999.
• AmeriCorps Educational Award from the Corporation for National Service, 1995-1996.
• Member of Phi Beta Kappa, Golden Key National Honor Society, and La Sociedad Nacional
Honoraria Hispánica