Ana M. Rodríguez-Rodríguez completed a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 and a second Ph.D. in Philology at the Universidad Complutense (Madrid, Spain) in 2021.

She was Chair of the Faculty Assembly of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2016-2017, and President of Faculty Senate in 2022-2023. She was also Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Interim DEO (Chair) of the Department of French and Italian (2020-2021). Some of her awards include the Michael J. Brody Award for Faculty Excellence in Service (2024), the M.L. Huit Faculty Award (presented annually to a University of Iowa faculty member who best characterizes the qualities of dedication to, concern for, and interaction with students) in 2015, and the International Engagement Teaching Award (jointly awarded by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and University of Iowa International Programs) in 2020.

Ana's research focuses on Spain's Literature and Culture. She has published articles on a variety of topics such as Christian-Muslim relations in the Mediterranean, women’s writing, and the Asian Spanish empire. In 2013, she published a book exploring Spanish captivity writings during the 16th and 17th centuries (Letras liberadas. Cautiverio, escritura y subjetividad en la época imperial española. Madrid: Visor Libros), and she is currently writing a monograph about the Philippines during Spanish colonial rule of the archipelago. She prepared an edition of Ana Caro's Valor, agravio y mujer in 2020, and is working on a critical edition of the Libro de casos impensados, by Alonso de Salamanca. Her passion for public engagement materialized in the exhibition Tan sabia como valerosa: mujeres y escritura en los Siglos de Oro (Wise and Valiant: Women and Writing in the Spanish Golden Age), which she curated at the Instituto Cervantes (Madrid) in 2020 and whose online version was named by the Smithsonian one of the world’s top ten online exhibitions of the year.