Collegiate Affiliation

Alex Korte is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Minnesota Duluth. His research on Premodern Iberia focuses on frontier narratives that highlight intersecting conditions of race, gender, and disability. His first book, Piracy, Captivity, and Human Trafficking in Medieval Iberia: Under the Predatory Flag (Amsterdam UP, 2025), focuses on piracy and human trafficking as represented in select premodern Iberian texts. Other research interests include thirteenth-century romance and aljamiado verse poetry, and adventure and travel narratives of the larger Mediterranean world. Alex has presented papers at domestic and international conferences, including the University of Córdoba and the International Congress of Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI). At this latter conference he also plans and moderates special panels on Ibero-Mediterranean topics of interest including: Disability, Gender, Race, Piracy, Captivity, Religion, and Travel. In Summer 2022 Alex completed his second research fellowship to consult archive material at the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. He also works with Foreign Language Pedagogy and has published research on classroom tasks that encourage advanced oral competencies. Alex is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, having served in the Water and Sanitation Sector in Piura, Perú, from 2015-17.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • B.A.: English, Spanish, University of Minnesota, 2012 -
  • MA: Spanish, Loyola University, 2015 -
  • PhD: Hispanic Languages and Cultures, University of Minnesota, 2023

Specialties

  • Medieval Iberian Culture & Thought