Department of Spanish and Portuguese

I am a scholar of colonialism in Latin America. I specialize in literary and cultural production that reflects material practices of domination, the long-term effects of colonization, and the ways in which imperial power has been challenged. My research focuses primarily on the early colonial period but also highlights the ongoing effects of this foundational period and considers how it is remembered and reimagined in postcolonial narratives, cultural production, and contemporary scholarship. My methodology is comparative and interdisciplinary. My published work considers textual, visual, and archival sources from Spanish and Portuguese America, focusing on case studies from Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. In my monograph, Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America (Routledge, 2022), I trace the emergence and early development of indigenous segregationist policies in the second half of the 16^th and early 17^th centuries. I show that segregationist measures influenced the material reorganization of colonial space, decisively shaped processes of racialization across Latin America, and contributed to the politicization of reproduction. My current research focuses on narratives about the latex-bearing tree Hevea brasiliensis. The project traces how rubber-producing plants became a global commodity—emphasizing the disastrous environmental impact and brutal labor exploitation that ensued as a result—and foregrounds the links between botany, plant commodification, and imperialism.

I have also organized conferences, workshops, and symposia working with colleagues from different disciplines around the world and have curated public-facing exhibitions. In 2023-2024, I co-led the Sawyer Seminar Global Slaveries, Fugitivity and the Artiles of Unfreedom. As part of the Sawyer Seminar, I also co-curated two exhibitions: 1) at Process Gallery in 2024 that featured the work of artists from South Africa and Brazil and was titled Refusal: An Exhibition on Fugitivity from Enslavement, 2) at the Lilly Library in 2023 featuring primary sources designed to inform the public about histories of slavery and fugitivity around the world. In 2015, I also co-organized a comparative workshop on Subaltern Studies held at Indiana University’s Gateway Center in India. 

• Race, Sex, and Segregation in Colonial Latin America (Routledge 2022). 
• “Academic Colonialism & Marginalization: on The Contentious Postcolonial/Decolonial Debate in Latin American Studies.” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 25, no. 1, 2022, pp. 17-34.  
• “Mestiçagem and Purity of Blood in Alain Fresnot’s Desmundo.” Hispanic Research Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 2020, pp. 53-69. 
• “Guamán Poma and the Genealogy of Decolonial Thought.” Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, 2018, pp.64-85.  
• “As órfãs d'el rei: Racialized Sex and the Politicization of Life in Manuel da Nóbrega’s Letters from Brazil.” Journal of Lusophone Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2016, pp. 72-97.            
• “La figura abyecta del mestizo en El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.” Letras: Revista de Investigacion de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas, vol. 85, no. 121, 2014, pp. 31-46. 
• “O silêncio do subalterno em Menino de engenho e Bangüê.” Teatro. Revista de Estudios Culturales, vol. 25, 2012, pp. 39-53.  
• “La otredad del yo en Las posibilidades del odio,” Divergencias: Revista de Estudios Lingüísticos y Literarios, vol. 8, no. 2, 2010, pp. 122-30.   
• Menino de engenho e Bangüê.” Teatro. Revista de Estudios Culturales. 25 (Invierno 2012): 39-53. Print.

• HISP S324: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures 
• HISP S328: Introduction to Hispanic Literature 
• HISP S334: Panoramas of Hispanic Literature 
• HISP S412: Spanish America: The Cultural Context 
• HISP S471: Spanish American Literature 1: Colonialism through Modernism 
• HISP S481: Hispanic American National/Regional Literature 
• HISP S695: Seminar on “Theories of Hybridity and Mestizaje in Latin American Cultural Production.” 
• HISP S695: Seminar on “Latin American (Post)Coloniality.” 
• HISP S695: Seminar on “Race, Biopolitics & Colonialism.”