My research focuses on 20th and 21st century Latin American literature, film, and cultural studies. You can find me on ResearchGate.
The Other Border Wars
My first book, The Other Border Wars: Conflict and Stasis in Latin American Culture, is under contract to be published in the University of Pittsburgh Press's series Illuminations: Cultural Formations of the Americas. The book examines how borders articulate literature and politics during and after a war, applying political and philosophical insights from US-Mexico border studies to Central and South American conflicts like the Chaco War (Bolivia-Paraguay, 1932-35), "Soccer" or Hundred Hours' War (El Salvador-Honduras, 1969), and Falklands/Malvinas War (Argentina-United Kingdom, 1982). I argue that Latin America’s twentieth-century border conflicts can be productively, albeit counterintuitively, considered as stasis, meaning civil strife, rather than international wars, or polemos. This approach encourages readers to understand conflict without presuming or asserting the border, recognizing that the border instantiates and organizes violence. Analyses of literature, cinema, and critical and political theory are critical in depicting border zones as areas of complexity rather than division. Throughout the book, I engage in constructive dialogue with Latin American, globalization, and border studies to argue for a theoretical suspension, rather than assertion, of the border.
Recent Articles
"Toxicity, Transgenics, and the Flesh of Fiction in Samanta Schweblin," Hispanic Review, vol. 91, no. 1, 2023, pp. 1-23
"The Olson Affair: Charles Olson, Heriberto Yépez, and Poetry in Translation," Romance Notes, vol. 62, no. 1, 2022, pp. 109-120
"Interregnum and Pharmacology: Hernán Ronsino's Pampas Trilogy," Revista Hispánica Moderna, vol. 74, no. 2, 2021, pp. 169-183
"Moth-Eaten Maps and Empty Wells: Augusto Roa Bastos, Augusto Céspedes, and the Chaco War Archive," Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2019, pp. 179-194
"Polemos: The Struggle between Being and History in Heidegger and Derrida," Política común, vol. 13, 2019
"Los pichiciegos on Sovereignty, Decolonization, and Democracy in the Falklands/Malvinas," Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 52, no. 2, 2018, pp. 551-574
"The Olson Affair: Charles Olson, Heriberto Yépez, and Poetry in Translation," Romance Notes, vol. 62, no. 1, 2022, pp. 109-120
"Interregnum and Pharmacology: Hernán Ronsino's Pampas Trilogy," Revista Hispánica Moderna, vol. 74, no. 2, 2021, pp. 169-183
"Moth-Eaten Maps and Empty Wells: Augusto Roa Bastos, Augusto Céspedes, and the Chaco War Archive," Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2019, pp. 179-194
"Polemos: The Struggle between Being and History in Heidegger and Derrida," Política común, vol. 13, 2019
"Los pichiciegos on Sovereignty, Decolonization, and Democracy in the Falklands/Malvinas," Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 52, no. 2, 2018, pp. 551-574
Up next...
I'm at work on my next book project about toxicity in Latin American culture, provisionally entitled Latin American Apothecary: Contamination and Cure in Literature and Film. The book examines the intermingling of cultural production with industrial agriculture and pharmaceuticals, producing food and medicine as well as toxins and disease. I focus on figures of movement, especially as toxins and drugs move regionally and globally, permeating cultural and food markets and linked to industrialization, globalization, and migration. The book examines how literature and film are implicated in producing toxicity, amnesia, and contemporary discontent, asking whether there might be another type of cure or remedy. Feel free to contact me via the Contact page for more information on upcoming projects.
