In Memoriam

In Memoriam:Janet Pérez and the AATSP Frank Nuessel The entire membership (more than 10,000) of the AATSP mourns the loss of Dr. Janet Pérez, Professor Emerita of Texas Tech University (Lubbock, Texas) where she held several distinguished appointments including the Paul Whitfield Horn (first president of Texas Technological College) Professor of Romance Languages, the Qualia (named for Dr. Charles B. Qualia) Chair of Spanish in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages, and Texas Tech Integrated Scholar (see “Janet Pérez: 2009 Texas Tech Integrated Scholar” for an interview about her induction into this elite group of scholars). While it is beyond the scope of this brief necrology to enumerate even a small portion of Janet Pérez’s extraordinary academic achievements, a perusal of her official curriculum vitae (see “Curriculum vitae”) with its impressive seventy-one single-spaced pages of significant and lifelong accomplishments in research, teaching, and service updated through March 2010 reveals a scholar of extraordinary aptitude and ability. Janet had an encyclopedic knowledge of Spanish peninsular literature, and she also possessed the critical and analytic skills to provide thoughtful and reflective interpretations of all the works she analyzed. Janet Pérez’s area of expertise was twentieth and twenty-first century Spanish peninsular literature—an area in which she published twenty books and 260 articles, book chapters, and contributions to reference works. She was indeed an academic titan in her profession and in her contributions to the AATSP. Janet was a member of the AATSP for more than half-century, becoming a member in 1963 and subsequently a life member on January 28, 2004. During that time, she had numerous significant roles within our association. In recognition of her service to the AATSP, she received the Outstanding Service Award (“2009 Outstanding Service”). Furthermore, she was a regular donor to the organization. Among Janet’s career-long contributions to the AATSP were several association positions that testify to her high scholarly standing and the professional respect that she commanded. She served as Book Review Editor of Hispania for three consecutive three-year terms (1987–95) and then as Editor of Hispania for another three consecutive three-year terms (2001–09). Her own written contributions to Hispania were also numerous and they include the following: • Janet made regular contributions to the “Hispanic World” section of Hispania from 1970 to 1977. Her submissions included politics, society, artistic and cultural life, and literature and literary figures. Included in her curriculum vitae are twenty-one exemplary citations from a much larger list. • She wrote 188 book reviews for many major scholarly journals dating back to 1965. Of these, 53 of her reviews appeared in Hispania. • She wrote 256 articles, of which ten appeared in Hispania. She also received the very first award for best article on Spanish literature in Hispania during a three-year period in 1968. [End Page 366] • She gave 200 academic presentations at professional meetings, two of which were at annual AATSP meetings. Janet was inducted into La Orden de Don Quijote on April 29, 2010, one of the highest honors bestowed on a person by Sigma Delta Pi, the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, which is a partner of the AATSP. A glance at those who have been inducted before and after her reveals a list of luminaries in our profession (see La Orden de Don Quijote). Likewise, Janet was also very proud of her election as Miembro Numerario of AATSP partner Asociación Norteamericana de la Lengua Española in March 2009 (see “ANLE Honors Janet Pérez”). A visit to the AATSP website (www.aatsp.org) provides further testament to her wide-ranging activities. Entering her name into the “Community Search” section on the right-hand side of the home page reveals thirty-four records for Janet Pérez. At the top of the list is her Member Spotlight, which summarizes her major contributions to the AATSP and her remarkable scholarly achievement (see “Member Spotlight”). Despite the prevailing practice of contemporary academic institutions to view faculty members in quantitative terms only, Janet Pérez was far more than her remarkable scholarly statistical profile. As a member of the AATSP Executive Council

Art history · Sociology · Classics · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · Cultural and Mythological Studies · History · Spanish Culture and Identity