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Alexandra Wilhelmsen, PhD

Alexandra Wilhelmsen, PhD

Emerita Professor of Spanish & History

Email: awilhel@udallas.edu

Office Hours: By Appointment

An American from California who was raised in Spain and studied in Italy for several years, Dr. Alexandra Wilhelmsen was the historian in the Department of Modern Languages. She retired in May of 2017 after teaching at 吃瓜网 since the Fall of 1971. Dr. Wilhelmsen is a graduate as well as a former director of our Spanish Program. She is a specialist on Spain. During her years as a professor at 吃瓜网, she taught dozens of different courses in both Spanish and English, directed half a dozen M.A. theses, directed over one hundred and thirty senior research projects, taught on 吃瓜网鈥檚 Rome Campus, and in Spain at 吃瓜网鈥檚 summer programs. She also took Spanish graduate students on study trips to Mexico, served in the Faculty Senate and on seventy-five formal committees. Dr. Wilhelmsen was responsible for the creation of 吃瓜网's library collection in Spanish history, and she began the annual D铆a de la Hispanidad celebration in 2006. Dr. Wilhelmsen initiated 吃瓜网's relationship with the Catholic University of Avila, in Spain. At the time of her retirement, the Spanish Program created the Alexandra Wilhelmsen Scholarship Award for exceptional academic work by a senior graduating in Spanish.

Dr. Wilhelmsen has published on many topics in Spanish history. She is acknowledged as an expert on Spanish Carlism, a political and religious movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

  • Ph. et Litt. D., History, University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) - Dissertation on Carlist political thought
  • M.A., History, Rice University - Thesis on Visigothic law
  • B.A., Spanish and Politics, 吃瓜网
  • Professor of Spanish
  • Adjunct Professor of History
 
 
  • Second Year Spanish II (MSP 2313)
  • Spanish Medieval History (MSP 4301)
  • Mexican Civilization
  • Introduction to the Art of Spain and Mexico
  • History of Medieval Spain
  • History of Habsburg Spain (the Golden Age)
  • History of Bourbon Spain (the Age of Revolution)
  • Senior Project (MSP 5302)

Alexandra Wilhelmsen鈥檚 research on Carlism focuses on political thought and on the life in exile of the Carlist branch of the Spanish Royal Family. Her quest for documents has taken her to over fifty libraries, archives, palaces, and churches in Austria, England, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the Vatican, as well as in the United States. She has also received documents and illustrations by mail from Brazil. 

  • "Mar铆a Teresa de Braganza Borb贸n: una Infanta valiente en el siglo XIX," Aportes.  Revista de Historia Contempor谩nea (Madrid), XXXVI, 105: 7-107.
  • "Do帽a Mar铆a Teresa de Braganza y Borb贸n (1793-1874)," chapter two of Reinas carlistas.  Carlos Mar铆a P茅rez-Rold谩n y Suances-Carpegna, ed.  Madrid: Asociaci贸n Editorial Tradicionalista, 2021, pp. .49-79
  • El Desarrollo del pensamiento pol铆tico del Carlismo (1810-1875). Madrid: Editorial Actas and Fundaci贸n Hernando de Larramendi, 1995. Second printing, 1998. 630 pages. This book received approximately twenty nice reviews published in various countries and was also included in half a dozen collective reviews. Professor Wilhelmsen's ten-page introduction was published in Portuguese translation as "O Antiguo Regime" (by Armando Alexandre dos Santos) in a journal in Lisbon, Portugal (1996) and another in S茫o Paulo, Brazil (1998).

In addition, Dr. Wilhelmsen has published over seventy articles and chapters of books in English and Spanish in different fields. Her most important ones on Carlism and its precursor, Spanish political Realismo, are: 

  • 鈥淐arlos VII or an Introduction to Carlism,鈥� Iberian Studies (University of Keele), VIII, 1 (Spring 1979): pp. 25-37.
  • 鈥淓l Manifiesto de los Persas: una alternativa ante el liberalismo espa帽ol," Revista de Estudios Pol铆ticos (Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, Madrid, Spain), Nueva 脡poca, 12 (Nov.-Dec. 1979): pp. 141-161.
  • 鈥淟os realistas en las Cortes de C谩diz: debates sobre un proyecto constitucional,鈥� Cuadernos de Historia de Espa帽a (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina), 63-64 (1982): pp. 292-321.
  • 鈥淟os realistas en el Trienio Constitucional: manifiestos de la Regencia de Urgel,鈥� Cuadernos de Historia de Espa帽a (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina), 67-68 (1982): pp. 369-400.
  • 鈥淭he Political Thought of Don Carlos in the First Carlist War,鈥� in Proceedings of the Fifteenth Consortium on Revolutionary Europe (1750-1850). K. A. Roider, Jr. at al, eds. (Athens, Georgia, 1985), pp. 161-177.
  • "Basque Carlism in the 1830's." Reflections (St. Paul, MN.), Oct. 1985:11. Review of John F. Coverdale, The Basque Phase of Spain's First Carlist War (Princeton University Press, 1984).
  • 鈥淭he Conspiracy of La R谩pita and the Carlist Theory of the Two Legitimacies,鈥� Continuity (The Intercollegiate Studies Institute), 11 (1987): 49-61. Republished in Marginated Groups in Spanish and Portuguese History. W.D. Phillips and C.R. Phillips, eds. Minneapolis, MN: Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, 1989, pp. 127-137.
  • 鈥淰icente Pou: An Early Carlist Political Analyst,鈥� in The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850. Proceedings, 1989, to Commemorate the Bicentennial of the French Revolution. D. D. Horward and J. C. Horgan, eds. (Tallahassee: The Florida State University, 1990), pp. 497-503. Republished in Spanish translation (by the author) as 鈥淰icente Pou: analista pol铆tico carlista temprano,鈥� Raz贸n Espa帽ola (Madrid, Spain), 55 (Sept.-Oct. 1992): pp. 181-190.
  • 鈥淐arlism's Defense of the Church in Spain, 1833-1936,鈥� Faith & Reason (Christendom College), XVI, 4 (Winter 1990): pp. 355-370.
  • 鈥淢ag铆n Ferrer: un pensador carlista renovador olvidado,鈥� in Estudios de historia moderna y contempor谩nea. Homenaje a Federico Su谩rez Verdeguer. Introd. by H.M. King Juan Carlos I. Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 1991, pp. 491-499.
  • 鈥淓l desarrollo de la ideolog铆a carlista,鈥� 1833-1876, in Las Guerras Carlistas. A. Bull贸n de Mendoza, ed (Madrid: Universidad Complutense and Editorial Actas, 1993): pp. 43-59.
  • 鈥淎ntonio Aparisi y Guijarro: A Nineteenth-Century Carlist Apologist for a Sacral Society in Spain,鈥� in Saints, Sovereigns and Scholars. Studies in Honor of Frederick D. Wilhelmsen. R. Herrera et al., eds. (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), pp. 365-375. Also published in Spanish translation (by Luis Infante) as "La conciencia social del escritor y senador carlista Antonio Aparisi y Guijarro. Aportes (Revista de Historia Contempor谩nea), (Madrid), VII, 20 (July-Oct. 1992): pp. 24-30.
  • 鈥淧edro de La Hoz: cr铆tico carlista del parlamentarismo en el reinado de Isabel II,鈥� in Racionalismo. Homenaje a Fern谩ndez de la Mora. 脕. Maestro, ed. (Madrid: Fundaci贸n Balmes, 1995), pp. 301-307.
  • 鈥淭he Theory of Spanish Political Traditionalism (1810-1875): Realism and Carlism,鈥� in Identidad y nacionalismo en la Espa帽a contempor谩nea: El Carlismo (1833-1975). Jornadas organizadas por la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison y la Fundaci贸n Hernando de Larramendi. S. G. Payne, ed. (Madrid: Editorial Actas, 1996), pp. 44-54. Also published in Spanish in the same book as "La Teor铆a del tradicionalismo pol铆tico espa帽ol (1810-1875): Realismo y Carlismo": pp. 33-43.
  • 鈥淢ar铆a Teresa of Braganza, Portuguese Princess of Beira, Wife of the Pretender Carlos V,鈥� in Mediterranean Studies VI. B. F. Taggie et al., eds. (Kirkville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1996), pp. 79-101.
  • 鈥淢ar铆a Beatrice di Austria-Este Savoia y la formaci贸n intelectual de su hijo mayor, el pretendiente Carlos VII,鈥� Aportes (Revista de Historia Contempor谩nea) (Madrid), XIII, 36 (1/1998): pp. 69-86.
  • "Siguiendo los pasos de la Princesa de Beira por los Pirineos." El Bolet铆n Carlista de Madrid, 53 (Sept. 2000). No pagination.
  • 鈥淐arlism: From Reaction to Counterrevolution, 1833-1876,鈥� in Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. M.J. Chodakiewicz and J. Radilowski, eds. (Charlottesville, VA: Leopolis Press, 2003), pp. 9-23. Republished in Polish translation (by Marciej Jabl贸nski) as 鈥淜arlism. Od reakcji do Kontrrewolucji, 1833-1876,鈥� Glaukopis (Warsaw, Poland), 2/3 2005: 9-20. This publication in Warsaw includes 12 unnumbered pp. of illustrations in color.
  • 鈥淔rancisco Javier de Lizarza Inda y la memoria hist贸rica del Carlismo,鈥� Aportes (Revista de Historia Contempor谩nea) (Madrid), XXII, 65 (March 2007): pp. 4-22.
  • 鈥淢ar铆a Francisca de Braganza,鈥� Diccionario biogr谩fico espa帽ol. (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2010), v. IX, pp. 358-359.
  • 鈥淢ar铆a Teresa de Braganza,鈥� Diccionario biogr谩fico espa帽ol. (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 2010), v. IX, pp. 359-361.
  • Review of Mark Lawrence, The Spanish Civil Wars (London, Bloomsbury, 2017), Bulletin of Spanish Studies (Queen鈥檚 University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and University of Glasgow, Scotland), XXV, 1 (2018).
  • 鈥淭he Adventures of a Stateless Prince: Xavier of Bourbon Parma,鈥� Aportes. Revista de Historia Contempor谩nea (Madrid): XXXIV, 100 (Feb. 2019): pp. 181-238.

During her years at 吃瓜网, Dr. Wilhelmsen gave over eighty-five lectures and scholarly presentations in many countries in America and Europe at universities, academic gatherings, cultural institutions, clubs, and churches. She continues to lecture in retirement.

  • Luis Hernando de Larramendi Award (Madrid) in the Hernando de Larramendi Foundation's competition for book-length manuscripts in the history of Carlism, 1994. The award was for El Desarrollo del pensamiento pol铆tico del Carlismo (1810-1875).
  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1999
  • King Award, given by 吃瓜网 to a member of the faculty for "distinguished contributions to the excellence of the university," 2004.
  • Capit谩n Etayo Hispanidad Award, given by the Comuni贸n Tradicionalista Carlista (Madrid), 2017.

 

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