Robert Lane Kauffmann (PhD in Comparative Literature, UC San Diego, 1981) retired from Rice in 2015 after a long and distinguished career. He taught courses in Spanish literature and thought, Latin American short fiction, literary translation, and for two decades, a section of Rice’s introductory humanities course (Renaissance to the Present). He chaired the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (1996-2002) before its inclusion in MCLC, and founded the Global Hispanism Workshop (2003-2015) of Rice’s Humanities Research Center. His research interests include modern European literature and philosophy, the history and theory of the essay, and the Spanish Civil War and its consequences.