Spanish Faculty Bio

Dr. Danny Brunette-López is Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Spanish and Hispanic Studies at Howard Payne University. He holds his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Michigan State University and Ph.D. from The University of Arizona.

His scholarly research focuses on grotesque black humor in Spanish Picaresque fiction, specifically Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), Francisco de Quevedo’s El buscón (1626) and Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache (1599, 1604). Dr. Brunette-López also has a profound interest in Cervantes’ Don Quijote de la Mancha (1605, 1615), the Spanish Comedia as well as modern-day film. He has published “The Anticlerical Climate of the Renaissance: Intense Clerical Opposition and Fear during the Reformation,” and his article “Entropic Humor and the Subversion of the “Ordered” System: Anticlericalism and Skepticism in Lazarillo de Tormes” was published in Hispanic Studies in Honor of Robert L. Fiore, a Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monograph.

Dr. Brunette-López teaches introductory and intermediate Spanish, as well as a wide array of literature, culture and civilization courses on the advanced level at Howard Payne. He is sponsor of the Amigos Unidos Club, serves on various university committees, attends yearly language and literature conferences, promotes study abroad, mentors and advises students, and enjoys informing students of the importance of being bilingual and multicultural.

Dr. Brunette-López was also the recipient of the “Excellence in Teaching Award” at Howard Payne in the 2014-2015 academic year.