Spanish scholar Krauel dies at 40

Ricardo Krauel, an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures, passed away Nov. 22 after a seven-year battle with brain cancer. He was 40.

"He was a leading scholar on gender issues in contemporary Spain, even though he was so young," said Angel Loureiro, department chair and a former colleague of Krauel's.

Krauel joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1998, specializing in gender roles in 20th-century Spanish and Portuguese literature and 19thand 20th-century Spanish poetry.

"[Krauel] was a very rigorous researcher," Loureiro said in an interview. "He published often ever since he was a graduate student. He was pretty close to finishing [his second] book."

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1999, Krauel made a temporary recovery, resuming his post at the University in 2001 and publishing his first book: "Voces desde el silencio," or "Voices from the silence."

In the work, Krauel explores the roles of same-sex relationships and homophobia in Spanish literature in the century from 1875 to 1975.

"He was a very meticulous, intelligent and bright person indeed," said Krauel's former adviser, Geoffrey Ribbans, an emeritus professor of Hispanic studies at Brown. "His organization skills were quite excellent."

Ribbans advised Krauel during his graduate work at Brown, where he received his Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies in 1998, after graduating from the University of Malaga in Spain and earning a Master's degree from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

"His [thesis] proposal was so ambitious, it covered 100 years and many authors. We were skeptical about that, but the way he tackled it, he was quite right. He knew what he was doing," Ribbans said.

This thesis project eventually developed into the book Krauel published in 2001. He was in the midst of research on a second book — investigating the extent to which controversial gender issues were discussed in modern Spanish poetry — when he relapsed into illness in 2003 and was forced to take a leave of absence.

"He deserved the highest position," Ribbans said. "[Krauel was] a very promising scholar and a fine teacher as well."

In 1997, Brown awarded Krauel the Mary Ann Lippitt Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Kossoff Prize for Leadership in Language Teaching. He then returned to Brown in 2001 to deliver the annual Jose Amor y Vazquez alumni lecture, reserved for the school's brightest graduate students, Ribbans said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"He was absolutely generous and humble, honest and forward," Loureiro said. "He will be remembered not only as a researcher but as an outstanding colleague."

Krauel is survived by his wife, Carmen Santa-Cruz, a lecturer in the Spanish and Portuguese department, and his children Alejandro and Victoria.