About
My main research field is Colonial Latin America, with interest in postcolonialism, literature and human rights, indigenous literatures of the Americas. I currenly direct the Comparative Literature & Cultural Studies Program (MA & PhD) at the University of Arkansas.
I have served in the MLA Executive Committee of Colonial Latin American Literature, as Co-Chair of the Latin American Studies Colombia Section. I serve on the editorial board of Confluencia (U of Northern Colorado), Perifrasis (U de Los Andes, Bogota), Estudios de Literatura Colombiana (U de Antioquia, Medellin), and Co-herencia (U Eafit, Medellin).
I am a U.S. Fulbright Scholar recipient to Colombia. I have been visiting professor at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de Antioquia, Universidad Eafit, and Universidad de Buenos Aires (Online). Education
Ph.D. in Spanish University of Maryland 1996
M.A. in Spanish University of Maryland 1992
B.A. in Philosophy and Literature, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellin, Colombia Publications
BOOKS AND EDITIONS
- Narrativas en vilo entre la estética y la política. Co-edited with Clemencia Ardila and Sergio
Villalobos. Medellin: Editorial Universidad Eafit, 2016. 229 pp
2. El Estado impostor. Apropiaciones literarias y culturales de la memoria muisca y de la América
indígena. Medellín. Editorial de la Universidad de Antioquia, 2013. 186pp. Awarded the Premio Roggiano de la Critica Latinoameriana 2014, ILLI Reviews: Revista de Critica Latinoamericana, Transhumante, Revista de Estudios Colombianos.2.
Antología crítica de Juan de Castellanos. Bogotá: Centro Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. 456 pages. Reviewed in Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2004.
3. Un nuevo reino imaginado: Las Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias de Juan de Castellanos. Instituto
Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica, 1999. 233 pp. Reviews in Estudios de Literatura Colombiana 8 (2001): 107-9; and Fronteras de la Historia 5 (2000) 152-56. 1999. Currently working on second edition.
4. First Encounters: Native Americans and Europeans in the Mississippi Valley. CD-Rom co-produced
with George Sabo and Linda Jones. Arkansas Archeological Survey. National Endowment for the
Humanities Teaching with Technology Project.
SELECTED ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS (from 66 chapters, articles and other publications)
1.“Narrativas humanitarias y colonialidad” in
Narrativas en vilo entre la estética y la política. C. Ardila, L.
Restrepo and S. Villalobos, eds. Medellin: Editorial Universidad Eafit, 2016 pp. 87-102.
2. “Lecciones de la Conquista sobre la justicia transicional y las sociedades posconflicto. El Tratado de
las doce dudas (1564) de Bartolomé de las Casas.”
Literatura y diálogos trasatlánticos, E. Neira and S.
von Werder (eds.), Frankfort: Peter Lang, pp.33-44.
- “Cuentos de la conquista” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 31.1(2014): 15-27.
- “Hispanismo e inmigración. Nuevas agendas por trazar” In Intolerancia y globalización. Edison Neira
and Sophie von Werder, eds. Frankfort: Peter Lang, 2014. 51-59.
- “Castigo, sacrificio y duelo.” In Sujetos múltiples: colonialidad, indigenismo y feminismo. D. Solodkow
and C. Alzate, eds. Bogotá: U de los Andes, 2014. 223-238.
- “A dos palmos del suelo” S. Kirk, ed. Estudios coloniales latinoamericanos en el siglo XXI: nuevos
itinerarios . Pittsburgh, PA: IILI, 2011. 315-329.
- “Memory and Justice” Native American Studies Across Time and Space. Edited by Oliver Scheiding.
Heidelberg: Heidelberg Universitätsverlag, 2010. 91-104.
- “Creole Politics of Memory.” In Creole Subjects in the Colonial Americas. R. Bauer and J.A. Mazzotti,
eds. Univ. of North Carolina Press. Chapell Hill: 2009. 334-354.
- “Colonial Thought” A Companion to Latin American Philosophy. Edited by Susana Nuccetelli, Ofelia
Schutte, and Otávio Bueno. New York: Blackwell, 2009. 36-52.
- “El parque humano y la ciencia criolla ilustrada” in Poéticas de lo criollo. D. Solodkow y J. Vitulli.
Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 2009.
- “Imperial Reason, War Theory, and Human Rights in Las Casas’s Apologia and the Valladolid Debate”.
CoPi with C. Jauregui. In
Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolome de las Casas. Ed. by S. Arias
and E. Merediz. New York: MLA, 2008. 106-116.
Projects
RESEARCH PROJECT
Research Proposal Title
The Precarious Subjects of Imperial Compassion. Writing Suffering and Humanitarianism in the
Early Modern Hispanic World (16th and 17th Centuries)
Research Proposal Abstract
A book-length study of early modern humanitarianism, focused on four well known intellectuals of
the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain and the Americas: Juan Luis Vives, Bartolomé de las Casas,
Alonso de Ercilla, and Alonso de Sandoval. Known for their writings on war, the conquest of
America, and slavery, these writers offer valuable insights into the ethics and aesthetics of the
representation of suffering. Their texts are key precedents in the development of a universal
human rights framework, originating from the violent experience of colonialism, and revealing the
ambivalences of solidarity projects at a global scale. This is an interdisciplinary research project
examining literary, historical and philosophical texts providing historical depth to humanitarian
politics today. Upcoming Talks and Conferences
“Historia e imperio en el antijovio y las Elegias de varones ilustres de Indias.” paper for the Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI) congress at the Universidad Javeriana, June 2018.
Memberships
MLA, Associacion de Colombianistas, ACLA, LASA, Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, Grupo de Estudios Literarios (Universidad de Antioquia)
