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
Transnational discourses of citizenship, democracy, social mobility, and critical development theory in contemporary and 20th-century Latin American and Borderlands literary production. Reading programs. Emphasis on Colombian, Mexican and Brazilian literature.
PUBLICATIONS
Edited Dossiers/Special Issues in Academic Journals.
2021 “Literatura além do livro.” Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, 59, 2020.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
2021 “Estéticas de la aspiración, políticas de la inclusión: glosas al desarrollo en dos saraus de Rio de Janeiro.” A literatura além do libro, special issue of Estudos de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, no. 59, 2020, pp. 56-68.
2019 “Apropiarse de la ciudad: los recursos de la memoria en Guia afetivo da perifería, de Marcus Vinícius Faustini.” Literatura y derechos humanos. Nuevas violencias, nuevas resistencias, special issue of Otras Modernidades, 2020, pp. 233-243.
2010 “Un Pueblo en vilo.” Revista de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea 44. 7-11
Book Chapters
2013 “Desgracia y redención: una parábola sobre Sudáfrica.” J.M. Coetzee. Edited by Óscar Godoy Barbosa, Editorial Universidad Central, 2013, pp. 114-132.
Book Chapters, Fiction
2007 “Gasa”. Cuentos de la calle. Antología de cuento colombiano contemporáneo, edited by Francisco Soler, Editorial Norma, 2007, pp. 33-37.
2004 “Gasa”. De 1 a diez. Varios. Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo, 2004, pp. 77-83
Fiction in Literary Journals
2017 “La salvaje luz del verano.” Revista Avispero, no. 12, 2017, pp. 23-31.
2006 “Sin el pie de apoyo.” Rio Grande Review, vol 28, no. 1, 2006, pp. 26-35.
Book Reviews
2010 Review of Antología hispánica del cuento beatle. Madrid by Mario Cuenca Sandoval (2009). Rio Grande Review 36.2. 179-80
Work in Progress
forthcoming “An Archive of Unexpected Crossings: Aspiration, Violence, and the Labor of
Forgetting in Sofoco, By Laura Ortiz Gomez.”
forthcoming “The Work of Promotion and the Promotion of Labor: Politics of Reading, Aspiration and Forgetting in El atajo, by Mary Yolanda Sánchez.”
SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
Panels Organize/Chair
2024 “The Politics of Labor and Reading in Two Colombian Novels”. The Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference, University of Kentuky, Lexington, KY, April 18-21
2022 “The Border Studies Program: Transnational Learning through a Social Justice Curriculum Grounded in the US/Mexico Borderlands.” Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (AAPLAC), Tucson, Arizona, February 16-19
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, Michigan, 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
Refereed Conference Presentations
2024 “The Work of Promotion and the Promotion of Work: Towards a Political Economy of Reading in El atajo, by Mery Yolanda Sánchez”. Latin American Studies Association Congress, Bogotá, June 12-15
2023 “The Work of the Artist and the Creativity of Labor in Aguas de Estuario, by Velia Vidal: Human Rights and Neoliberal Intersections.” Challenging Borders in Domestic and International Human Rights Conference, Albion College, Michigan, April 20 – May 2
2023 “Neoliberal aesthetic in Colombia: Political Economies of Labor in Two Contemporary Novels”. The Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Conference, University of Kentuky, Lexington, KY, April 20-22
2022 “Intersecciones: ‘Aguas de Estuario’ y ‘Guia Afetivo da Periferia’, de Veia Vidal y Marcus Vinicius Faustini: lo popular y sus espectros en Colombia y Brasil.” III Congreso Internacional de Literatura Brasileira (COLIBRA) João Ubaldo Ribeiro, la ficción y la historia, Universidad de Salamanca, December 12 -16
2021 “Unexpected Archives of Development: The Rural Life of the City.” American Comparative Literature Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting, Virtual Conference, April 8-11
2020 “Los archivos del desarrollo: clase media y genealogía hemisférica en Los de
en medio, de Augusto Morales Pino,” 54th annual SCOLAS conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 12-14
2019 “Of Streets, Neighborhoods and Peripheries: Political Circumstance and Economic Imagination in ‘La cuadra’, by 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 saraus in Contemporary Brazil.” American Portuguese Studies Association, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 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 Nostalgic Tradition of Development.” Shared Knowledge Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. November 3-4.
2016 “Invited poster presentation.” VII Simpósio Internacional de Literatura Brasileira Contemporânea, Brasilia (Brazil). December 4-7
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, California, October 13-15
2016 “Escolios a un texto explícito: fracturas, ansiedades y fantasías de clase media.” XXXIV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, New York, 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, Rhode Island, 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, New Mexico, 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, Illinois, 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, Louisiana, 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, California, 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, Texas, March 8-10
Invited and Non-Refereed Presentations
2023 “Charles Bowden and the Photographs of the Future”. Invited Lecture. Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. September 7
2022 “Colombian Syllabus: el paro nacional y la construcción colectiva de conocimiento”. Invited Lecture. Universidad Javeriana. Bogota, Colombia. September 6
2021 “O Cortiço, by Aluisío Azevedo: Urban Space and the Genealogy of Exclusion in Brazil”. Invited Lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. February 16
2020 “Culture and Democracy: A Middle-Class Case for Inclusion in Colombian Literature”. Language Learning Center Lecture Series. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. April 7
2019 “Middle Class Aesthetics and Agonistic Politics in Latin American Literature: Upward Mobility and Insurgency in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico”. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. November 20
2019 “Teaching your Scholarship in Times of Crisis: Understanding Social Mobility and Inclusion in the Humanities Class-room”. Language Learning Center Lecture Series. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. September 18
2019 “El lugar del medio: desarrollo y aspiración en la novelística de Osorio Lizarazo.” Invited lecture. Clases medias en Latinoamérica: subjetividades e historias. Colegio de México, Mexico City, April 2-3
2019 “Medical Spanish and poetry.” Invited lecture. University of New Mexico, New Mexico, March 08
2019 “Writing the Center: A Transnational Approach. Middle Class and agonistic aesthetics in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.” Latin American and Iberian Institute. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. March 29
2019 “Las novelísticas del lobo: Colombia la clase media global”. Lecture delivered at the World Languages Expo. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. March 2
2018 “A Transnational narrative of the Center: New Middle Classes in Latin America.” Invited lecture. University of New Mexico, New Mexico, December 07
2018 “Fora do lugar, pertencendo: a formação da Classe C como repertorio do desenvolvimento”. Invited lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. April 17
2017 “An unexpected, unusual space for literature.” Field Research Colloquium, University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. November 03
2017 “La violencia y el pueblo: colonos, herederos y cronistas de villa”. Invited Lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. February 6
2016 “Clases medias emergentes y literatura en América Latina”. Invited Lecture. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque, New Mexico. September 12
2015 “Arribistas, sinvergüenzas y lobos: clase media y literatura en Colombia”. Invited Lecture, Instituto Cervantes. Albuquerque, New Mexico. 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, New Mexico. 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, New Mexico. 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
Remunerated Invited Presentations
2024 “Revisiting the Archive of the Unexpected: Lettered Incursions in the Borderlands. The Case of ‘La Vorágine’ and the Border Studies Program”. Invited Lecture. Pomona College, Claremont, California. October 28
2022 “The Work of Literature and the Creative Writing Endeavor”. Lecture delivered at “Book Launch Invitation. Nuestros Cuentos”. Community College of Aurora, Online Session, Nov 15
2022 “Social Protest in Colombia: An Aspirational Political Subjectivity?”. Lecture. delivered at “Fighting the Power: Global Movements for Social Justice”, DePauw University, Online Session, Jun 2
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, April 18