Journal of Foreign Languages, Cultures & Civilizations

Scott Sigel Academic research and close textual readings of Spanish Golden Age literature have been Scott Sigel’s focus as a scholar of literature since his undergraduate days, when he received the Susan Anthony Potter Prizes in consecutive years at Harvard College under the tutelage of eminent Hispanists: RaimundoLida, Juan Marichal, and Stephen Gilman. He then completed a year in Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied Hispano-Arabic poetry with James Monroe. He then transferred to Stanford University in order to study Cervantes with Alban Forcione and completed the doctorate in Spanish and Classics. He worked as an interpreter for many years but never left academia completely: it was his goal to live in Montana, and he was fortunate in finding positions at various times at the University of Montana (Missoula and Billings) and for a period of three years at Rocky Mountain College, where he won a teaching prize voted by the students. He became lead contract interpreter for AT&T Language Line in Spanish, French and Portuguese in 1994 and moved to rural Montana. His work with AT&T allowed him opportunities to travel to every Spanish-speaking country in Latin America, sometimes repeatedly. He was already fluent in Spanish, but interpreting made him an adept expert in differentiating the numerous regional and societal differences in Spanish, as well as the various ways in which speakers of Spanish from different countries and backgrounds explained and resolved situations ranging from trial proceedings in law courts to medical and business scenarios. He moved to North Dakota in 1997 in order to restore the Eric Sevareid House in Velva to the National Register of Historic Places, and decided to remain in North Dakota and make this place his home for the past 16 years. In 2001, he reduced his interpreting commitment and wrote journalism about music in the Twin Cities. In 2003, he decided to begin work in academia again, first as a Visiting Assistant Professor of French at Concordia College, and the following year in the same role at Minot State University. During that period, he revised his doctoral dissertation on Golden Age Spanish poetry and had it published with the Mellen Press in 2007. He left MSU at the end of that year, set up a global studies program at the University of Mary, and then worked independently in developing countries in Africa and South Asia. Finally, in 2010 he returned to MSU in the tenure-track position in Spanish and is the coordinator of the Minot State International Film Series.