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Nadiyah Aamer
Research Area
20th-21st Century | Iberian Studies | Migration/Diaspora/Border Studies | Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies | Women's Voices
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish, Georgia State University
B.A. in Spanish, Georgia State University
B.A. in Psychology, Georgia State University
Bio
Nadiyah Aamer is a PhD Candidate of Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. Her main research interests include: Arabs and Muslims in the Contemporary Hispanophone World, Postcolonial Women's Voices, and Migrant/Diaspora/Border Literatures. Her dissertation focuses on the figure of Scheherazade from the 1001 Arabian Nights as an archetypal "Odalisque" figure of Muslim women in contemporary Spanish-language literature. She was awarded the Dean's Fellowship in 2019 and 2023 and was awarded the UGrow Center for the Humanities Fellowship in 2020. In 2024, she was nominated for the Modern Languages and Literatures Department Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, and was awarded the Summer 2024 Doctoral Micro-Grant. She has been published in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.
Recent Publications
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Rose Flaure Accilien
Research Area
Sociolinguistics | Critical Language Studies | Post-colonial & Decolonial Studies | Caribbean & Diaspora Studies | Language Insecurity | Disaster Linguicism | Multilingualism | Linguistic Trauma | Creolization | Digital Language Acquisition
Degree(s)
M.A. in International Disaster Preparedness, Florida International University
B.A. in International Relations & French Literature, Florida International University
Bio
Rose F. Accilien is a PhD candidate in the Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages. She is especially interested in researching how migration from natural disasters, gang violence and climate change have all impacted a shift in linguistic identities throughout the Caribbean. Rose is also involved in promoting language equity and L1 language re-acquisition in the diaspora. She is continuously seeking opportunities to collaborate with fellow researchers in all her research areas.
Recent Publications
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Albin Aichberger
Research Area
Languages in Contact and Contrast | Spanish-German, Creoles, and Endangered Languages | Sociolinguistics | Computational Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics | Natural Language Processing | Artificial Intelligence | Morphosyntax | Semantics | Teaching Methodologies
Degree(s)
M.A. in Linguistics, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
M.A. in German as a Foreign/Second Language, Universität Graz, Austria
Academic Expert for German as a Foreign/Second Language, Universität Graz, Austria
B.Ed. in Spanish, Geography & Economics, Universität Graz, Austria
Bio
Albin Aichberger (he/him) hails from Austria and is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Miami in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies, with concentrations in Caribbean Studies, Digital Humanities, and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching.
His research focuses on Languages in Contact and Contrast, with a particular emphasis on Spanish-German, Creoles, and Endangered Languages. His interdisciplinary approach combines Sociolinguistics with methods from Computational Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Natural Language Processing, and Artificial Intelligence. Within these areas, he further investigates Morphosyntax, Semantics, and Teaching Methodologies.
Drawing on years of language teaching and testing experience, Albin has taught at the university level in Puerto Rico and contributed to migration projects in Austria and the Canary Islands. He holds an M.A. from both the Universität Graz, Austria, and the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. He also completed exchange studies at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain, and the Universidad de Puerto Rico. In 2024, he was awarded the UM Fellowship.
Recent Publications
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Monica Baro Sanchez
Research Area
Natural Disasters | Housing Problems | Human Rights | Investigative and Literary Journalism | Agrocology | Gender Violence
Degree(s)
M.F.A. in Literary Reportage, New York University
B.A. in Journalism, Havana University
Bio
Mónica Baró Sánchez is a Cuban independent journalist born in Havana in 1988. She graduated from Havana University with a degree in Journalism in 2012. In 2015, she co-founded Periodismo de Barrio, an independent digital magazine focused on environmental issues, and was part of its Editorial Board. During her three years at Periodismo de Barrio, she covered topics such as vulnerable communities, natural disasters, housing problems, pollution, agroecology, droughts, and lead poisoning, specializing in investigative and literary journalism.
In 2016, her story "La mudanza" (The Displacement), which detailed the displacement of a vulnerable community in Santiago de Cuba, was named one of the three finalists for the Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Award, organized by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for New Iberoamerican Journalism. In 2018, she began collaborating with the independent digital magazine El Estornudo, and by January 2019, she joined its reporting team in Cuba. Her writings have also addressed issues such as gender violence, exile, and human rights.
In 2019, her piece "La sangre nunca fue amarilla" (Blood Was Never Yellow), investigating lead poisoning, won the Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Award in the text category. Due to her work as an independent journalist and her activism in defense of human rights, she left Cuba in January 2021 and sought asylum in Spain.
In September 2022, she enrolled in the Master's Program on Literary Reportage at New York University, completing her studies in 2024.
Recent Publications
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Gabriel das Chagas
Email
gxd574@miami.edu
Research Area
Comparative Literature | Cultural Studies | Film Studies | Postcoloniality and Decoloniality | Intersectionality | African Diaspora and Global Black Studies | Queer Studies | 20th Century | American Studies | Brazilian Studies | Latin American Studies
Degree(s)
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
M.A. in Comparative Literature, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
B.A. in Portuguese and English, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Bio
Gabriel Chagas (he/him) holds a B.A. in Portuguese and English (magna cum laude) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He received his M.A. in Comparative Literature and his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is currently pursuing his second Ph.D. at the University of Miami, where he is a Portuguese Instructor and a 3rd-year Ph.D. student. His main research interests are Comparative Literature, Brazilian/Latin American Studies, African American Studies, African Diaspora/Global Black Studies, Postcoloniality, Decoloniality, and Intersectionality. His research interweaves Portuguese, Spanish, and English, offering a transnational perspective of Blackness in the Americas through the works of writers Lima Barreto from Brazil, Langston Hughes from the U.S., and Manuel Zapata Olivella from Colombia.
Gabriel has published articles in American and Brazilian academic journals. His book Pérolas Negras na Periferia (Pontes Editores, 2023) was awarded 1st place in the Antonio Candido National Prize for Literary Studies in Brazil. Gabriel was also awarded 1st place in the 2023 postdoctoral and graduate symposium at the University of Miami. In 2023, he was a co-covener in the Center for Humanities at UM and he is now a University of Miami Fellow.
Recent Publications
2023 Book Pérolas Negras na Periferia (Editora Pontes, Brazil)
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Jacob Dennis
Research Area
Cultural Studies | Black Feminisms | Indigenous Studies | Queer Studies | Decoloniality | Marxism | Critical Race and Ethnic Studies | Comparative Literature | Critical Geographies | Ecocriticism | Diaspora Studies | Critical Refugee Studies | Digital Humanities | Second Language Pedagogy | Language Policy
Degree(s)
M.A. in Romance Languages, The University of Alabama
B.A. in Foreign Languages and Literature, The University of Alabama
B.S. in Mathematics, The University of Alabama
Bio
Jacob Dennis (they/them) is a first-year PhD student of Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. Jacob completed their undergraduate studies in French, Mathematics and Spanish, and they hold a master’s degree in applied (French) linguistics. Jacob’s research focuses broadly on studies of the francophone and hispanic Caribbean-Americas with specific interests in anticolonial and decolonial movements, histories and thought.
Recent Publications
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Catheline Théodora Desire
Research Area
Cultural Studies | Caribbean Studies | Haitian Studies | Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies | Languages in the Caribbean | Language Policy | Sociolinguistics
Degree(s)
M.A. in Didactics of Languages, French as Foreign Language, French as Second Language: Careers in Research, Teaching, Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
B.S. in Law, Université de Limoges, France
B.A. in Arts, Languages, and Literature, Université de Limoges, France
Undergraduate Coursework, International Exchange: English Literature, Global Studies, Hood College
Bio
Catheline Desire is a Ph.D. student of Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She was born and raised in Haïti and went to college in France. She earned a double degree in literature and law in Limoges, France, and pursued a master's in language didactics at Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle, France. Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, linguistic interaction in the Caribbean, and identity through language and culture. Catheline is passionate about languages, decolonial studies, politics, and feminism. She is fluent in Haitian Creole, French, and English and looks forward to improving her Spanish. Catheline has experience teaching French in France and the United States of America. Outside of school, Catheline loves trying new restaurants, traveling, and spending time with her family. She also likes to walk Freddie, her beautiful dog.
Recent Publications
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Diona Espinosa
Research Area
Cuban and Latin American Documentary | Transmedia narratives | Cuban Contemporary Performance Arts
Degree(s)
M.A. in Cultural Studies and Literature (Spanish), University at Albany, SUNY
Diploma in Teaching Training, University of Salamanca, Spain
PGCE Humanism and Society, Alberto Hurtado University, Chile
B.A. in Journalism, University of Havana, Cuba
Bio
Diona Espinosa is a Research and Teaching Assistant and a current graduate student at the University of Miami. Currently, she is one of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas (UMIA) Distinguished Fellows. Also, she has received the UGrow Fellowship in Digital Humanities and the Annual Digital Humanities Graduate Student Fellowship, among others honors and awards. Espinosa has been a speaker in conferences for the Latin American Studies Association Conference, the Graduate Student Cuban Studies Symposium at Harvard University, Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, Stony Brook University, University at Albany, and the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies, among other symposia and academic events and venues. Her research and teaching interests include Film studies, Performance Studies, Digital Humanities, Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Latin American Literature and Spanish.
Recent Publications
Review of Ana Peluffo. En clave emocional. Cultura y afecto en América Latina. MARLAS, vol. 4, no.2, 2016, pp.282-284
Review of DH project “DECIMA,” Journal Review in Digital Humanities.
Review of Bretton White. Staging Discomfort: Performance and Queerness in Contemporary Cuba, Skene Journal, vol.8, no.2, pp.285-292
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Marcia Fanti Negri
Research Area
Cultural Studies and Post-coloniality | Literary, Theater and Performing Arts | Gender & Sexuality Studies | Aesthetics
Degree(s)
Ph.D. in Linguistic Studies, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil
M.A. in Linguistic Studies, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil
Bio
Marcia Fanti Negri is a PhD candidate in Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies at MLL. Her research interests are in Cultural Studies and Post-coloniality; Literary, Theater and Performing Arts; Gender & Sexuality Studies; Aesthetics; Teaching (Portuguese/English/Spanish) as a Second Language and Teacher Education. She holds a PhD and MA in Linguistic Studies from Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil. She has served as Portuguese faculty at the Middlebury College Summer Language Programs teaching a variety of language and culture courses in the Lusophone world since 2020. Marcia is very keen on artistic expressions and their educational and political value to society. In her dissertation Re-mapping Women’s Voices in Brazilian Contemporary Writing, she explores inverted migration and intersections of gender, race and social class in the Northeast Brazil through women’s voices in contemporary writing.
Recent Publications
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Eukene Franco Landa
Email
eukenefrancolanda@miami.edu
Research Area
Sociolinguistics | Morphosyntax | Language Sociology | Language Ideology
Degree(s)
M.A. in Basque Linguistics and Philology, University of the Basque Country
B.A. in Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country
Bio
Eukene Franco-Landa (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. She is a Basque speaker and an advocate of minority languages and cultures. Her work focuses on sociolinguistics, language variation and contact, and language ideologies. She has done research on the agreement variation in young Basque speakers and on linguistic identities and attitudes towards Basque. Her dissertation focuses on the variation of the ergative marker in Basque and the language ideologies related to speaker authenticity and legitimacy attached to that feature. More specifically, it compares these phenomena in two Basque communities: the Basque Autonomous Community (Europe) and the Basque diaspora of Boise, Idaho (United States).
Recent Publications
Gondra, A., Rodríguez-Ordóñez, I. & Franco-Landa, E. (2024). Variation in the Production of Basque ergativity: Change or Stable Variation?. Language Variation and Change, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394524000048
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Yaliza Gutierrez-Nuñez
Research Area
Portuguese & Brazilian Studies | Global Black Studies | Themes of Beauty | Cultural Studies | Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Caribbean Studies | Latin American Studies | Lusophone Studies
Degree(s)
M.A. in Latin American Studies, University of Miami
M.A. in Teaching, National-Louis University
B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese Literature, Northwestern University
Bio
Yaliza Gutiérrez-Núñez is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, where she focuses on Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University, a Master of Teaching from National-Louis University, and a Master of Arts from the University of Miami.
Her research is centered around themes of race, gender, and sexuality in the literature and popular cultures of the Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil, and the Lusophone World. She is interested in national narratives of race mixture and doing work to re-center sex, sexuality, and desire in the myths that have invisibilized blackness and black resistance. She is looking at how narratives of race mixture are produced and how whiteness is idealized. She has a passion for researching themes of beauty, how culture is created and consumed, and what it does for consumption at an international scale. Yaliza also loves to travel the world and is and is working to mentor and inspire women of color to pursue higher education.
Recent Publications
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Maytte Hernandez-Lorenzo
Email
mxh1512@miami.edu
Research Area
Theater | Performance Studies | Cultural Policy | Latin American Literature | Caribbean Studies
Degree(s)
B.A. in Journalism, Havana University, Cuba
Bio
Maytte Hernández Lorenzo (also Maité Hernández-Lorenzo) is a fourth-year doctoral student in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies in the MLL Department at the University of Miami. She is a researcher, critic, and theater promotor, and has collaborated on theatrical projects in Cuba, the United States, and Denmark. She was awarded a scholarship by l’Observatoire des politiques culturelles de Grenoble (France, 1997). She has participated in several Latin American Studies Association (LASA) conferences over the past two decades. She has served as a juror for the 11th Woman Playwrights International Conference Chile (2018) and the12th Women Playwrights International Conference Montréal (virtual, 2021).
She has published as a journalist and researcher in journals in Cuba, the United States, and Mexico. She is co-author of Antología de Teatro Alemán (Ediciones Alarcos, 2008) and Vicente Revuelta: monólogo (Ediciones Mecenas, 1999; Ediciones Tablas-Alarcos, 2019 and 2021). She is the author of the story collections Las memorias vacías de Solange Bañuelos (Ediciones Vigía, 2014), Las memorias vacías de Solange Bañuelos y otros cuentos (Ediciones Matanzas, 2018, Premio Puerta de Papel, Havana), and Viaje al interior (Ediciones Unasletras, 2021). She has received the Goizueta Foundation Graduate Fellowship (Pre-prospectus, 2023), UMIA Field Research Grant (2024) and the Doctoral Archival and Specialized Research Awards (2024).
Recent Publications
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Linet Hernandez-Moredo
Research Area
Caribbean aesthetics and literary criticism | Aesthetic sympathy | Women aesthetic thought | Computational linguistics | Natural language processing
Degree(s)
Ph.D. in Philosophy, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba
M.A. in Cuban History, Universidad Central de Las Villas, Cuba
B.A. in Humanities (Hispanic Linguistics and Literature), Universidad Central de Las Villas, Cuba
Bio
She is the author of the book El arte de sentir. Varona y la reflexión estética en Cuba, Ácana, Camagüey, Cuba, 2021. She was an Associate Professor of Aesthetics, Spanish Writing and Text Analysis, and History of Arts and Literature at the University of Arts, Camagüey campus, Cuba. She also taught Integrated Practice of Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Camagüey. In the United States, she has taught Spanish as a second Language in Spanish Tutor D.C. Additionally, she has worked as a Substitute Teacher in School Professionals, and as a Linguistic Data Specialist in QuillBot. Her current research interests are the links between philosophical aesthetics and literature during the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in the Caribbean region, as well as aesthetic sympathy and women aesthetic thought; she is also interested in Computational Linguistics.
Recent Publications
2024 Paper: “Sobre el rol de la simpatía en la expresión estética: Theódore Jouffroy y Sully Prudhomme”. Theoría. Revista del Colegio de Filosofía (currently in publishing process).
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Samuel Johnson
Research Area
Latin American Studies | Luso-Brazilian Studies | Amazonian Studies | Multispecies Justice | Decolonial Theory | Post-colonial Studies | Environmental Humanities | Human and Non-human Rights | Indigenous Studies | Latin American Film | Brazilian Film | Spanish as a Second Language | Portuguese as Second Language
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico - Albuquerque, NM
M.A. in Latin American Studies, University of New Mexico - Albuquerque, NM
B.A. in Spanish and History, Aquinas College
Bio
Samuel Johnson is a PhD candidate in the Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies program in the Department of Modern Languages. His research interests include ecocriticism, climate change, Indigenous peoples, multispecies justice, coloniality, and the intersections of these themes in literature, film, and new media in Latin America. His dissertation, "Amazonian Narratives: Seeking Epistemic and Ecological Justice in the Anthropocene" traces the role of literary, film, and media production emerging from the transnational, intercultural space of the Amazon that preserves, shares, and uplifts of Indigenous ways of knowing and being while seeking justice for the multispecies communities of the Americas.
Recent Publications
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Neta Kanny
Research Area
Venezuela | Cultural and Literary Studies | Film and performance studies | Diasporic literature | Migration/border studies | Transnational studies (Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil) | Latin American studies | Identity studies | Cultural policy | Political science | Digital humanities
Degree(s)
M.S. in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies (Spanish concentration), Georgia Institute of Technology
B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese, University of Georgia
Bio
Neta Kanny is a Ph.D. student of Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic studies at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. Neta graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2020 with an M.S. in Applied Languages and Intercultural Studies (Spanish concentration) and received her B.A. in Spanish and Portuguese in 2017 from the University of Georgia. Neta’s research focuses on transnational representations of the Venezuelan migrant crisis, providing a regional comparative approach to the study of cultural productions (films, theater, diasporic literature, etc.) from Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil resulting from the crisis.
During Summer 2023, Neta worked as the Venezuela Intern of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs in the Office of Andean Affairs, where she prepared leadership to engage on Venezuelan issues and current events related to the country’s 2023 opposition primaries and 2024 presidential elections. Additional regional experiences include serving as a research consultant for the Carter Center’s 2021 Nicaraguan election observation project and training as a Spanish Literacy Promoter with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic.
Recent Publications
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Nina Lee
Research Area
Cultural Studies | Performance Studies | Dance | the Caribbean | Migration | Identity | Cultural Production | Coloniality, Postcoloniality, Decoloniality
Degree(s)
M.A. in English & Comparative Literature, American University in Cairo
B.A. in Spanish Literature, University of North Florida
B.A. in French Studies, University of North Florida
Bio
Nina Lee (she/her) is a PhD student in the Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies Program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She received her M.A. in English and Comparative Literature in 2022 from the American University in Cairo in Egypt and her Bachelor’s in Spanish and French Studies at the University of North Florida in 2019. Her doctoral research focuses on social dances of the Caribbean and how their vocabularies of movement reflect larger iterations of movement, such as migration, identity, and cultural production. Outside of her work at the university, Nina actively participates in the salsa and bachata scene in Miami and across Florida.
Recent Publications
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Massiel Medina
Research Area
Caribbean Studies | Caribbean Literature | Cultural Studies | Latin American Literature and Culture
Degree(s)
M.A. in Foreign Languages and Literatures, North Carolina State University
B.A. in Psychology, North Carolina State University
B.A. in Spanish Language and Literature, North Carolina State University
Bio
Massiel Medina is a PhD student studying Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies. She holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Psychology and Spanish and a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Languages and Literature from North Carolina State University. Her research interests while at the University of Miami center around Caribbean literature and history, with particular attention to the Hispanic Caribbean. Her main interests include globalization, subalternity, and diasporas. Prior to attending UM, she served as a Program Assistant for an allied health graduate program.
Recent Publications
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Yoán Moreno
Email
yjm13@miami.edu
Research Area
Caribbean Literature | Creolization | Sound Studies | Drumming | Literature-Music Interface | Cuba | Miami
Degree(s)
M.A. in English, Loyola Marymount University
B.A. in English, Florida International University
Bio
Yoán Moreno is a PhD candidate in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies. He is a UMIA Distinguished Graduate Fellow (2024/25) as well as a McKnight Fellow (2021-26), and was previously a Dean’s Fellow (2021-23). He studies the interface of music and sound with literature in (early) 20th century Caribbean literature as well as the relation of the former to contemporaneous and subsequent theories of creolization. Yoán is originally from Miami, Florida, and works beyond the program in the capacities of translator and musician.
Recent Publications
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Vijay Navarro
Research Area
Degree(s)
M.A. in Latin American Studies, Stanford University
B.S. in Latin American Studies, Environmental Engineering, United States Military Academy (West Point)
Bio
Recent Publications
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Marisleydi Ramos
Email
mxr2529@miami.edu
Research Area
Sociolinguistics, Language in society | Spanish in the United States | Dialects in Contact | Language & Identity | Heritage Speakers | Heritage Language Development
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish M.A. with an emphasis in Spanish Applied Language, Culture, and Literature, Florida International University
B.A in Philology specialized in Hispanic Linguistics, University of Havana
Bio
Marisleydi Ramos Borrego is a PhD student in Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies. Her work focuses on Spanish varieties and Hispanic communities in the United States. In 2020, with her master’s thesis she contributed to the research on Spanish dialectal contacts by analyzing the Nicaraguan variety in Miami. Her project examined the repertoire of second-generation Spanish and the social factors that influenced its dialectal formation at the lexical level.
Her research interests include Spanish dialects in contact in the U.S., the relationship between social factors and dialectal variation, Spanish literacy, linguistic ideologies, heritage speakers and their attitudes toward Spanish varieties. Her current work questions what linguistic form(s) and linguistic ideologies are interwoven in Spanish-language theater and what their social and linguistic implications are in the Miami context. Her purpose is to diminish linguistic and cultural stigmas about the varieties of Spanish and their speakers in this territory and in the United States.
Recent Publications
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Yasamin Rezai
Research Area
New Media Studies | Digital Humanities | Social Media and Platform Studies | Theatre and Performance | Language & Identity (Persian: Iran and Diaspora) | Electronic Literature | Cultural Studies
Degree(s)
M.S. in Process Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran
B.S. in Process Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy
Bio
Yasamin Rezai (she/they/او) is a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural, Literary, and Linguistic Studies with experience teaching French, Persian, and Italian on campus. She employs digital humanities tools and data-driven approaches to study social media platforms, and her work is theoretically situated at the intersection of critical data feminist studies, new media, and performance studies. Her dissertation analyzes the genre of instapoetry on social media and digital platforms as an emerging literary and cultural wave, exploring its poeticness, performativity, and subversiveness in the Iranian social media ecosystem and diaspora. She also works on the #MeToo movement, and part of her collaborative research on the #metoo movement has been published as a book chapter in the collection "MeToo Movement in Iran" by Bloomsbury Publishing in the series Sex, Family and Culture in the Middle East. She is the co-founder of Instasociety.org, an open-access research resource investigating how social media influences popular culture. Her work has appeared in various academic journals such as European Journal of English Studies, Digital Humanities Quarterly, and Critical Studies in Media Communication. She co-organized panels such as Data Performance and has presented at conferences hosted by organizations such as Cultural Studies Association, International Federation of Theatre Research, and Modern Languages Association. Yasamin has been the recipient of various fellowships and grants, such as Ugrow, Digital Humanities at UM, and the Institute for Data Science and Computing (IDSC) grant. She is also a HASTAC scholar from 2021- 2023. Moreover, Yasamin co-founded and chaired the Iranian Association at the University of Miami to advocate for Iranian students and the Iranian American diaspora on campus. To learn more about Yasamin or to contact her, visit yasaminrezai.com or click here.
Recent Publications
“Performing Persian Poetics on Instagram: An Interview with @barkhi_az_honarmandan.” European Journal of English Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, 2023, pp. 148–162.
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Catalina Revelo
Research Area
Contemporary Latin American literature | Gender dynamics | Social issues | Motherhood representations | Violence against women | Sex-role stereotypes | Modernism | Postmodernism | Empowerment | Social change | Latino/a studies | Race theory and postcolonialism | Comparative literature
Degree(s)
M.S. in Foreign Languages and Literature (Spanish), Mississippi State University, Starkville, MS
B.S. in Nutrition and Diet, Universidad Mariana de Colombia, Pasto, Colombia
Bio
Catalina Revelo recently completed her M.S. in Foreign Languages and Literature at Mississippi State University. Her research on Latin American literature earned her the 2024 GSA Graduate Student Excellence Award and Outstanding Graduate Student in CMLL. She has presented at international conferences in gender dynamics and motherhood in contemporary works and led Spanish language labs.
Recent Publications
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Kathy Rubio
Email
kxr737@miami.edu
Research Area
Sociolinguistics | Language Ideologies | Caribbean Studies | Language Pedagogy | Creolization | Transculturation | Hybridity | Language Contact | Francophone Studies | Insular Studies | Archipelagic Studies | Oceanic Studies | Cultural Studies | Tourism
Degree(s)
M.A. in Teaching Languages, The University of Southern Mississippi, MS
B.A. in French and Spanish, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
Bio
Kathy Rubio is a PhD student of Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies, with concentrations in Caribbean Studies and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching. Born in Belgium and raised in the USA, Kathy is interested in languages and cultures in contact, especially in the context of the French-administered islands in the Caribbean, Oceania, and Indian Ocean. With professional experience in the fields of education and tourism, Kathy takes an archipelagic approach to study how minorized languages and cultures are sustained and promoted through grassroots education and tourism efforts throughout the DROM-COM.
Recent Publications
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Ernesto Rumbaut
Research Area
Cultural Studies | 20th Century Literature | Latinamerican Literature | Caribbean Literature | Cuban Literature | Performance Studies | Performance | Ritual | Religion | Identity
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish, Florida International University, Miami, FL
B.A. in Art History, Florida International University, Miami, FL
Bio
Ernesto Rumbaut was born and raised in Cuba. Currently, he is a performer, actor, teacher pursuing a Ph.D. in Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. He is interested in the study of liminal spaces created in the middle of binary systems and/ or related fields. Such is the case of performance and religion, which is his main focus at the moment with special interest in Afro Cuban religions.
Recent Publications
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Savannah Saavedra
Research Area
19th- 21st century Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies | Colombian Literature and Culture | Mexican Literature and Culture | Gender studies | Urban Studies | Madness, illness and the body| Politics
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish, University of Virginia
Undergraduate certificate in Spanish English Translation and Interpretation, Virginia Commonwealth University
B.A. in International Studies (concentration in Latin America), Virginia Commonwealth University
B.A. in Spanish, Virginia Commonwealth University
Bio
Savannah Saavedra was born in South Africa and raised in Richmond, Virginia. She is a fourth-year PhD student in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. Her main research interests include: 19th-21st century Latin American literature, (with a specific focus on Colombia and Mexico), Latin American women writers, nationhood, politics and madness/corporeality as well as urban studies. Likewise, she also holds interests in foreign language pedagogy, bilingualism, and second-language acquisition. She is currently pursuing the Digital Humanities and Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) certificates and the Caribbean Studies Concentration.
Recent Publications
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Lourdes Schmader
Email
les231@miami.edu
Research Area
Latin American Studies | Social Movements | Indigenous Studies |Indigenous Feminism | Ecocriticism | Amazonia and Environmental Justice | Ecuadorian Amazon | Decolonial Studies | Kichwa Diaspora in the US | Latin American Literature of the 19th and 21st centuries | Aesthetics | Comparative Literature | Digital Humanities | Documentary Production | Ecuadorian Literature |Modernism | Medardo Ángel Silva
Degree(s)
M.A. in Spanish, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
B.A. in Criminal Justice, University of Maryland Global Campus, Adelphi, Maryland
B.A. in Political and Social Sciences, Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil Law School, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Bio
Lourdes Schmader, born and raised in Ecuador, is a Spanish Instructor and Ph.D. candidate in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. Her dissertation examines the crucial contributions of Indigenous women in Ecuador’s Amazon region to environmental conservation and the defense of ancestral lands from the late 20th century to the present. Focusing on the activism of Indigenous Kichwa women, she highlights their collaborative efforts to resist extractive industries such as oil drilling, mining, and deforestation. By exploring the intersection of Indigenous feminism and land sovereignty, her research illuminates the relationship between gender dynamics and environmental activism.
Collaborating closely with communities in Alto Napo and Pastaza, she investigates how ancestral knowledge and Indigenous cosmovision, including Sumak Kawsay (Good Living) and Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest), guide sustainable land stewardship and resistance to environmental threats. Her study connects these cultural frameworks with the Rights of Nature enshrined in Ecuador's Constitution, demonstrating how Indigenous cosmovisions influence environmental policy and shape interactions with the government to promote ecosystem well-being and advocate for social and environmental justice.
Her scholarly research also extends to the Kichwa diaspora in cities like New York, Chicago, and Madison, Wisconsin. In these communities, she observes how new generations navigate a tripartite identity of Kichwa-Ecuadorian-American, grappling with the complexities of belonging while upholding the legacy of their parents’ and grandparents’ migration. This research illuminates the broader implications of the Kichwa diaspora, including the challenges and opportunities for cultural preservation and identity formation, especially in the context of Ecuador’s dollarization in the early 2000s, which drove many Indigenous families to seek better futures in the United States.
She has been awarded the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship by the U.S. Department of Education for two consecutive years (2023 and 2024), allowing her to study the Kichwa language in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 2024 she was awarded the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Studies of the Americas Field Research Grant and the Summer Doctoral Research Grant.
Recent Publications
Schmader, Lourdes Elizabeth. “Colectivo LasTesis: cuerpo, calle y movilidad.” Alba de América 41 (2024): 151-166.
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Euge Stumm
Research Area
Queer Studies | Transfeminism | Digital Humanities | Fiction | Brazilian Cinema | Video Games | Cultural Studies | New Media | Gender | Sexuality | Decoloniality | Intersectionality | Critical Race and Ethnic Studies | Comparative Literature
Degree(s)
M.A. in Psychology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
B.A. in Psychology, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre
Bio
Euge Stumm (they/them) is a student of Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies at the University of Miami. Euge holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), with a thesis on the filmic production of Brazilian trans women and travesti directors. For this research, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) nominated Euge for the Young Researcher Award. They earned a master’s degree in Psychology from UFRGS, with a dissertation on the poetics of Brazilian Furry Fandoms. Their Ph.D. research will explore the cultural productions made by Brazilian queer dissidences, with an emphasis in new media and cinema.
Recent Publications
Schneider, K. L., Stumm, E. H., Rocha, R. Z. da ., & Levandowski, D. C.. (2023). Práticas inovadoras no ensino da Psicologia do Desenvolvimento. Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, 27, e242419. https://doi.org/10.1590/2175-35392023-242419
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Diana Laura Valcárcel
Research Area
Degree(s)
Bio
Recent Publications
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Aileen Vezeau
Research Area
U.S. Latinx and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures | Puerto Rican Studies | Identity Formation | U.S. Central Americans | Afro Latinxs
Degree(s)
M.A. in Iberian and Latin American Studies, University of Notre Dame
M.A. in Hispanic Studies, University of Georgia
B.A. in Spanish, University of Georgia
B.A. in Finance, University of Georgia
Bio
Aileen Vezeau is a Ph.D. student in Literary, Cultural, and Linguistic Studies with a concentration in Caribbean Studies. She studies the negotiation of identity and belonging in nineteenth through twenty-first century U.S. Latinx and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures with an emphasis on Puerto Rican nationalisms. Her research interests include the representation of martyrdom in literature in connection with Puerto Rican independence movements and the island's (neo)colonial state. Vezeau is a recipient of the McKnight Fellowship (2023-2028) and received the Dean’s Fellowship during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Recent Publications
“Tensions Between Female Representation and Female Empowerment in Carmen Rivera’s La Gringa.” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures, vol 6, no. 2, Spring 2022, pp. 59-78.
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Ruming Yang
Research Area
Representation of Chinese and Chinatowns in Latin American Literatures
Degree(s)
B.A. in Spanish, Beijing Language and Culture University
Bio
Ruming Yang is a PhD candidate in Literary, Cultural and Linguistic Studies at University of Miami. Her research interests include orientalism, queer theories and post-colonial theories. She is working on her dissertation on the representation of Chinatowns and Chinese people in Cuban and Peruvian literatures and cultures.
Recent Publications
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