Date: November 2009 (p. 1/1) | Dr. John Woodruff

2009-11-062020-09-24

Disparities of Discourse in Popol Vuh

Conference Paper. Francisco Ximénez’s transcription and translation of Popol Vuh is not as straightforward and sterile as is generally presumed. The task requires intricate management of the textual and semiotic grids, both in the the Quiché transcription and in the Spanish translation.more ›

John Woodruff is an Alt-Ac colonialist scholar, irregular adjunct professor, digital humanities practitioner, and contract linguist. He holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages, an M.A. in Spanish/Latin-American Studies, and a distinctive B.A.U.H. in Spanish/Mathematics. Dr. Woodruff is one of the world's foremost experts—and one of only two colonialists—on the periconquest Maya narrative known as Popol Vuh.

Dr. Woodruff's interdisciplinary scholarship examines the oldest-surviving Popol Vuh manuscript through the theoretical lenses of paratext, marginalia, and rhetoric. He is the only scholar to apply contemporary marginalia theory to Popol Vuh and his post-doctoral research examined marginal annotations and modal shifts to expose an unacknowledged authorial entity within the first folio recto. Other areas of interest and study include Maya anthropology, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Generation of 1927 poets and dramatists. More recently, Dr. Woodruff has taken an interest in gender law and policy.

In the classroom, Dr. Woodruff's teaching philosophy infuses self-concordance theory developed by Tal Ben-Shahar at Harvard University which further informs Woodruff's views on faculty-student collaboration.

Outside of the ivied halls of academia, Dr. Woodruff offers expert simultaneous and consecutive oral interpretation as well as document translation for medicine, civil law, business, and non-profit. He is available for guest lectures on Maya civilization, discovery/exploration of the Americas (1492–1524), and colonial Spanish-America (1542–1800).

In addition to his formal academic inquiry and practice, Dr. Woodruff has considerable technical expertise having created various workflow utilities, most notably Excellent Grades and FormMail++.

SHORT CV

Ph.D. University of Alabama Romance Languages
M.A. University of Alabama Spanish/Latin-American Studies
B.A.U.H. University of Montevallo Spanish/Mathematics

"Flying Indians [Regarding the flying mast that the Indians used in their major festivals]." Iconic Mexico: An Encyclopedia from Acapulco to Zócalo. Ed. Eric Zolov. Vol. 2. Santa Barbara, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2015. 664-666. Trans. of "Del palo volador de que usaban estos indios en sus fiestas principales." Monarquía Indiana. By Juan de Torquemada. Vol. 3. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1975-83. 434-437. Print.

"(Re)writing (Hi)story." Debunking The Maya Myth: Reassessing The Doomsday Prophecy. Valdosta State University Arts and Sciences Lecture Series. 2 October 2012.

"Ma(r)king Popol Vuh." Untying Tongues: Literatures in Minority or Minoritized Languages in Spain and Latin America. Spec. issue of Romance Notes. 51.1 (2011): 97-106. Print.

"Disparities of Discourse in Popol Vuh[: Constructing Images of the Self-same and of the Other]." South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention. 6 November 2009.

The "most futile and vain" Work of Father Francisco Ximénez: Rethinking the Context of Popol Vuh. U. Alabama, 2009. Print.

Ph.D.	University of Alabama	Romance Languages
M.A.	University of Alabama	Spanish/Latin-American Studies
B.A.U.H.	University of Montevallo	Spanish/Mathematics