Bacich, Damian
Professor, Spanish and Ibero-American Studies
Preferred: damian.bacich@sjsu.edu
Telephone
Preferred: (408) 924-4608
Alternate: (408) 924-4602 (Dept. main line)
Office Hours
For current office hours, contact the Department of World Languages and Literatures
Education
Ph.D., Hispanic Languages and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles
B.A., History, University of San Francisco
Bio
I’ve always admired people who could speak multiple languages. In high school I took Spanish and studied Latin. In college, in addition to Spanish, I took courses in Greek and Russian. In the summer between my sophomore and junior years in college I traveled through Europe, and found that my language classes paid off in helping me communicate, at least on a basic level. From then on, I got serious about becoming fluent in both Spanish and Italian.
After graduation I worked in international business and continued to hone my language skills. After spending a year at the Complutense University in Madrid I went on to earn a doctorate in Hispanic Languages and Literatures at UCLA.
In graduate school I learned Portuguese, improved my Latin and grew to love archival research in Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula. I also began to work as a professional translator and even did subtitling for a company in Hollywood.
Since 2007 I have taught Spanish language and literature in the Department of World Languages and Literatures, where I served as chair from 2012 to 2024.
I teach courses on Colonial Spanish American Literature and Culture, Translation and other subjects.
My research interests include Colonial Latin American literatures and cultures, translation and the Hispanic Southwest, including California. I am an affiliate of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a partner in Arizona State University's Saint Francis & the Americas project.
I believe strongly in the value of education in the humanities and in helping others pursue the study and enjoyment of world languages and literatures.