Sean Saxon

Sean is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Penn. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he spent seven years working in Madrid, Spain, before joining the Department as a lecturer and now a graduate student. His research interests include 20th and 21st-century Spanish political identity, food studies, and media studies. By studying agricultural products, consumption patterns, and their representations in film and literature, Sean aims to understand how food discourse can shape a desired national identity or function as a space of resistance. His experience gathering around the table—both literally and figuratively—is what drew him to participate as a Graduate Fellow in the SNF Paideia Program. He aims to cultivate a space where students can learn to engage in honest dialogue at the many “tables” where they sit. In Fall 2025, Sean will serve as the Graduate TA for the Fellows Proseminar I. In his free time, Sean enjoys cooking, reading, running, and being a doting uncle to his two nieces.