My thesis, “Writing the Center: Agonistic Aesthetics and Middle-Class Politics in Latin American Literature,” examines a corpus of cultural performances and novels that reflect on how the effects of growth and anti-poverty public policies (Bolsa Família, Familias en Acción and Prospera) comment on questions of economic inclusion and citizenship in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. The thesis elaborates on the dialectic relationship between rhetorical strategies present in literary and cultural manifestations and the economic imagination on development in the region. I propose that these cultural texts reinterpreted a genealogy of economic development, offering a repertoire of meanings and practices for contemporary public policy in which the concept of middle-class is predominant.
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Twentieth and twenty-first Century Spanish and Brazilian Literature. Discourses of social mobility, economic development and democracy in contemporary and 20thcentury Latin American literary production, particularly in Colombia and Brazil.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
2020 “La tradición contemporánea de los saraus: tres estudios de caso.” Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea.
2019 “Apropiarse de la ciudad: los recursos de la memoria en Guia afetivo da perifería, de Marcus Vinícius Faustini.” Otras Modernidades.
2010 “Un Pueblo en vilo.” Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea44. 7-11
2004 “Economía e historia: diferenciación disciplinar y el desarrollo como concepto homogenizante.” Cuadernos de trabajo. 4-42
Book Chapters
2013 “Desgracia y redención: una parábola sobre Sudáfrica.” J.M. Coetzee. Ed. Óscar Godoy Barbosa. Bogotá: Editorial Universidad Central, pp 114-132
Book Reviews
2010 Review of Antología hispánica del cuento beatle. Madridby Mario Cuenca Sandoval (2009). Rio Grande Review36.2. 179-80
In Preparation
forthcoming “Narrating capitalism, mobilizing the people: Maria Augusta Ramos and the documenting of contemporary Brazil.”
forthcoming “La casa de vecindad y la genealogía del desarrollo en la obra de Ozorio Lizarazo.”
Invited Editor
2020 “Literatura além do livro.” Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, 59, 2020.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Book Chapters, Fiction
2007 “Gasa”. Cuentos de la calle. Antología de cuento colombiano contemporáneo. Varios. Editorial Norma. 33-37
2004 “Gasa”.De 1 a diez. Varios. Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo. 77-83
Fiction in Literary Journals
2017 “La salvaje luz del verano.” Revista Avispero12. 23-31
2006 “Sin el pie de apoyo.” Rio Grande Review28. 26-35
REMUNERATED INVITED PRESENTATIONS
2018 “The rise of the Latin American New Middle Classes in Brazil and Colombia: a Cultural History.” Lecture delivered at CNM-UNM, Latin American Studies Spring Lecture Series. Albuquerque, Abril 18.
INVITED OR REFEREED ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTATIONS AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS
Panels Organized
2019 “Strange Resemblances, Familiar Differences: Hemispheric Trades and Local Democracies in the Cultural Production of Colombia and Brazil.” Latin American Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts, May 24-27
2018 “Dreams of Development, Realities of Inclusion: Tales and Fables of Democracy in Brazil.” American Portuguese Studies Association, Ann Arbor, MI, October 18-20
2018 “Rights, Aspiration and Inclusion: The Challenges of Democracy in Brazil.” Brazilian Studies Association, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 25-28
2018 “Ciudadanías, democracias, aspiraciones: un mapa binacional de la inclusión en Brasil y Colombia.” Congreso Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI), Bogotá, Colombia, June 12-15
2018 “Democracias, derechos y aspiraciones: un mapa cultural de la inclusión en Colombia.” Latin American Studies Association, Barcelona, España, May 23-26
Papers Presented
2019 “Of Streets, Neighborhoods and Peripheries: Political Circumstance and Economic Imagination in ‘Guia afetivo da periferia’ and ‘La cuadra’, by Marcus Vinícius Faustini and Gilmer Mesa.”Latin American Studies Association, Boston, Massachusetts, May 24-27
2019 “Creative Circumstance and Storytelling in Middle-Class Narratives.” Querencias Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, April 12-13
2019 “Imagination of Growth and the Challenge of aspiration: Two Takes on Social Mobility in Latin America.” Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 3-6
2018 “Performing Inclusion, Historizing Development: The Scene of sarausin Contemporary Brazil.” American Portuguese Studies Association, Ann Arbor, MI, October 18-20
2018 “The shameless memory of the self: the political circumstance of the periphery in Estação Terminal, by Sacolinha.” XIV Brazilian Studies Association Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 25-28
2018 “Periferia y clase en La cuadra, de Gilmer Mesa: un diálogo de fronteras.” Congreso Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI), Bogotá, Colombia, June 12-15
2018 “Democracias, derechos y aspiraciones: un mapa cultural de la inclusión en Colombia.” Latin American Studies Association, Barcelona, España, May 23-26
2017 “The memory of the wannabe in Guia afetivo da periferiaby Marcus Vinícius Faustini.” IX Annual Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference: Guilty Pleasures and Confessional Spaces: Storytelling and the Digital Dionysus, Albuquerque, NM, March 31-April 1
2016 The Memory as a Technology of the Self: The Nostalgic Artifact in Guia afetivo da periferia, by Marcus Vinícius Faustini.” X International Conference of the American Portuguese Studies Association, Stanford, CA, October 13-15
2016 “Escolios a un texto explícito: fracturas, ansiedades y fantasías de clase media en Guia afectivo da periferia, de Marcus Vinicius Faustini.” XXXIV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, NY, May 27-30
2015 “Ciudades invisibles, ciudades posibles: clase, ciudadanía y derechos humanos en Los parientes de Ester de Luis Fayad.” XXXIII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 27-30
2015 “La modernidad trasatlántica: Los parientes de Ester, de Luis Fayad.” VII International Conference on Transatlantic Studies, Providence, RI, April 21-24
2014 “Faceless perpetrators, Omnipresent State: Two Versions of the State of Exception. Los Ejércitos y K.” IX International Conference of the American Portuguese Studies Association, Albuquerque, NM, October 23-25
2014 “Escenarios de violencia y derechos humanos en dos novelas colombianas: Los ejércitos y 35 muertos.” XXXII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Chicago, IL, May 21, 24
2014 “Historias torcidas, derechos humanos. El estado de excepción en dos novelas colombianas: Los ejércitos y 35 muertos.” LAGO Graduate Conference, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, February 5-7
2013 La enseñanza de la escritura creativa.” Semana literaria Universidad Antonio Nariño, Universidad Antonio Nariño, Bogotá, Colombia, March 19
2012 “Editando en Español desde la frontera.” Convergences: Literary, Linguistic, Culture and Film Studies, Spanish and Portuguese Department, University of California, Davis, CA, October 26
2010 “Novelísticas de la violencia y la revolución: Jorge Ibargüengoitia y Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazabal.” 2010 XV Congress of Contemporary Mexican Literature, El Paso, TX, March 8-10
Posters
2017 “The Nostalgic Tradition of Development.” Shared Knowledge Conference, Albuquerque (NM). November 3-4.
2016 “Invited poster presentation.” VII Simpósio Internacional de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, Brasilia (Brazil). December 4-7
INVITED LECTURES AND OTHER PRESENTATIONS
2019 “El lugar del medio: desarrollo y aspiración en la novelística de Osorio Lizarazo.” Invited lecture.Clases medias en Latinoamérica: subjetividades e historias. Mexico City, April 2-3
2019 “Medical Spanish and poetry.” Invited lecture. University of New Mexico, NM, March 08
2019 “Writing the Center: A Transnational Approach. Middle Class and agonistic aesthetics in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.” Lecture delivered at the LAII PhD Fellows Colloquium. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. March 29
2019 “Las novelísticas del lobo: Colombia la clase media global”. Lecture delivered at the World Languages Expo. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. March 2
2018 “A Transnational narrative of the Center: New Middle Classes in Latin America.” Invited lecture. University of New Mexico, NM, December 07
2018 “Fora do lugar, pertencendo: a formação da Classe C como repertorio do desenvolvimento”. Invited lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. April 17
2017 “An unexpected, unusual space for literature.” Lecture delivered at the LAII Field Research Colloquium, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. November 03
2017 “La violencia y el pueblo: colonos, herederos y cronistas de villa”. Invited Lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. February 6
2016 “Clases medias emergentes y literatura en América Latina”. Invited Lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. September 12
2015 “Arribistas, sinvergüenzas y lobos: clase media y literatura en Colombia”. Invited Lecture, Instituto Cervantes. Albuquerque, NM. August 21
2015 “Re/Defining Being Latino/a in the United States: A Roundtable with Edmundo Paz Soldán, Loida Maritza Pérez, and Diego J. Bustos.” Invited Lecture, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM. March 20
2014 “Invisible Cities, Possible Cities: Middle Class Subjectivity and Citizenship in Los Parientes de Ester.” invited lecture, “Generation of ‘72: Latin American Forced Global Citizens,” panel presentation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. November 27
2013 “Desgracia y redención: una parábola sobre Sudáfrica.” Tres días con J.M. Coetzee, Universidad Central, Bogotá, April 16
2010 “Un pueblo en vilo.” Invited Lecture Primer Congreso de Ensayo y Crítica, Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua. May 19
2005 “El Quijote: una sola y ubicua carcajada.” Invited Lecture. I Congreso cuatrocientos años del Quijote, National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia. June 13
LITERARY PRESENTATIONS
2012 Presentation as editor of the third issue of Revista Coroto. Centro de Creación Literaria Javier Villaurrutia, Mexico City, Mexico, November 14
2012 Presentation as editor of the third issue of Revista Coroto. El Paso, TX, April 14
2011 Presentation as editor of the first issue of Revista Coroto, Medellín, Colombia, December 13
PUBLIC READINGS
2014 Featured reader at Instituto Cervantes official 2014 opening ceremony, Instituto Cervantes, Albuquerque, NM, April 26
2013 Featured reader at the Resolanas series, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, August 30
2007 Featured reader at the Barbed Wire Reading, El Paso, TX, September 14
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Latin American Studies Association (LASA), 2013-present
American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA), 2014-present
Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA), 2016-present
Modern Language Association (MLA), 2017-present
Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericna (IILI), 2017-present
Sigma Delta Pi Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica, 2016-present
LANGUAGES
Spanish: Native
English: Advanced reading, writing, speaking
Portuguese: Advanced reading, writing, speaking