The women’s studies department held an event on Oct. 21 in Rosenthal Library to showcase Barbara Simerka’s book, which applies cognitive theories to gender, class and identity in early modern Spanish literature. Simerka is a Spanish professor, who has published over twenty essays focusing on interdisciplinary and feminist approaches. She is also a founding executive board member of GEMELA, a group that focuses on medieval and early modern Spain and colonial Latin American women’s writing and culture. Simerka’s latest book, “Knowing Subjects,” draws on the theory of mind in order to analyze early modern Spanish literature, such as works by Cervantes and Gracián. Theory of mind is the ability to…