Profile
Robert A. Myak is a Postgraduate Research Associate in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Princeton University. In October 2023, he successfully defended his dissertation titled "Vessels of Social Critique: Poetry and Humor During Franco’s ‘XXV Años de Paz.’" To conduct his research, Myak was awarded Princeton’s Hyde Family Foundation Fellowship in 2021, which enabled him to undertake a year of dissertation research in Madrid, Spain. During this time, he also served as a visiting research scholar at the University of Granada and collaborated with the Otra Edad de Plata research group at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Myak has showcased his scholarly contributions by presenting his research at conferences held at universities in the United States, Spain, and Portugal. In addition to his recently completed dissertation, he has a forthcoming book chapter to be featured in the collaborative volume Ópticas femininas do terrorismo de Estado: actitudes sociais, violencias sexuadas e xestión de pasados traumáticos, edited by Aldara Cidrás. Currently, he is actively engaged in research projects focusing on Rafael Chirbes’s postwar novellas and Julio Antonio Gómez’s poetry and life, particularly the poet’s reflections on the heterogeneous space of the drugstore in early post-Francoist Spain.
Myak's research endeavors have been generously supported by Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) research grants, enabling him to conduct extensive research throughout Spain and France. He was also a recipient of a McMahon travel grant, facilitating archival research at the Filmoteca Nacional de España on Carlos Saura’s La prima Angélica (1974). Beyond his specialization in Francoism, Myak has explored antiracist street art in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighborhood, with an article on this topic set to appear in the inaugural edition of The Hare.
At Princeton, Myak has taught Intermediate/Advanced Spanish (107) and Advanced Spanish (108). Additionally, he taught as a preceptor for the course "Identity in the Hispanic World" alongside Christina Lee. Notably, he played a pivotal role in organizing a partnership with a local NGO during a trip to Antigua, Guatemala, connected to his prior involvement in 2015. In the upcoming Spring of 2024, Myak will teach an advanced undergraduate seminar on postwar Spain.
He earned his B.A. in Spanish Literature & Culture and his M.A. in Latin American and Iberian Studies from the University of Notre Dame. His honors thesis at Notre Dame focused on ecclesiastical corruption in Leopoldo Alas’s La Regenta (1884/1885). During his time at Notre Dame, he also taught introductory Spanish (101 & 102).