The Americas Latinx and Indigenous People's Research Center
The Americas Latinx and Indigenous People's Research Center
Dr. Olga Sanmiguel-Valderrama
Director of AIRC
sanmigo@ucmail.uc.edu
(513) 556-6654
Dr. Sanmiguel Valderrama is an Associate Professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexualities at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her LLM in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa, where she also worked at the Human Rights Research and Education Center. In 2004, she graduated with her Ph.D. in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Her research interests are the contradictions between neoliberal international trade, military aid, and human rights with a focus on labor, environmental, and equality rights for women and racial minorities. Professor Sanmiguel-Valderrama’s current areas of research and teaching are family-work conflict under globalization, feminist mothering, international women's rights, and women's labor rights. As a Taft Research Scholar, she is currently working on two new book projects provisionally entitled, Latinx in Agribusiness and Where did I go? Reflections on Late Mothering.
Dr. Amy C. Lind
lindac@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)-556- 0675
Dr. Amy C. Lind Is a Mary Ellen Heintz Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is currently serving as UC's Taft Research Center Director & Faculty Chair. Dr. Lind graduated in City and Regional Planning with her Ph.D. at Cornell University. She has also served as head of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from August 2015 through December 2018. Dr. Lind's areas of scholarship and teaching include urban studies, global political economy, postcolonial studies, Global South/transnational social movements, feminist and queer theory, and studies of neoliberal governance. Her new book, Constituting the Left Turn: Resignifying Nation, Economy and Family in Postneoliberal Ecuador (with Christine Keating), addresses the cultural, economic, and affective politics of Ecuador's postneoliberal Citizen Revolution.
Dr. Jeffery C. Jacobson
jacobsjt@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)- 807-3789
Dr. Jeffery C. Jacobson is a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. He graduated in 2001 with a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from Case Western Reserve University with a dissertation entitled, Spirits, Demons, and Nightmares: Moral Images of Self and Other in Puerto Rican Life History and Religious Discourse . Dr. Jacobson has received various research grants and taught graduate and undergraduate classes in cultural and medical anthropology. His most current publication is “Work Experiences of Latina Immigrants: A Qualitative Study.”
Dr. Leila Rodriguez
rodrigla@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)-556-5783
Dr. Leila Rodriguez is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. As a cultural anthropologist and demographer, her research focuses on the local level integration of immigrants. Framed by theories of displacement, "illegality", politics of representation and the anthropology of the good, she seeks to understand the ways in which multiple perspectives and representation of migrants shape their integration and the forms by which institutions and communities foster inclusion and exclusion of migrants. Rodriguez graduated with her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University 2009. Her research has been supported by The National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop Grant. Her most current publication is an introduction to the Special Issue: “Convergences, Challenges, and Future Directions in the Use of Cultural Expert Evidence in Legal Proceedings.”
Dr. Kenneth Tankersly
tankerkh@ucmail.uc.edu
(513) 556-5784
Dr. Kenneth Tankersly is a professor of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. He is also a curator in the Court Archaeological Research Center. Dr. Tankersly’s specializations are: Archaeological Geology, Quaternary Science, and Catastrophic Volcanic and Cosmic Impact Events. His current research and publications deal with catastrophic volcanic eruptions and cosmic airburst events, which have resulted in periods of climatic and environmental change. Dr. Tankersly directs the Court Archaeological Research Facility and the Ohio Valley Archaeology Laboratory. His most recent publication is entitled, “Positive Platinum Anomalies at Three Late Holocene High Magnitude Volcanic Events in Western Hemisphere Sediments.”
Juwon Lee
juwon.lee@uc.edu
513-556-6008
Juwon Lee is a Program Coordinator at the Office of Ethnic Programs and Services. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Juwon holds a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic and American Studies and an M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. He coordinates the Darwin T. Turner Scholars Program.
Fabrice Juin
fabrice.juin@uc.edu
(513)556-6008
Fabrice Juin is a Program Manager at the Office of Ethnic Programs and Services.
A native Haitian, Fabrice received his B.A. from New York University. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Health. At the Office of Ethnic Programs and Services, his professional endeavors are multicultural education, leadership development, and community engagement.
Dr. Rebecca Wingo
wingora@ucmail.uc.edu
(513) 556-2140
Dr. Rebecca Shirley Wingo is an Assistant Professor at the History department in the University of Cincinnati. She is also a director of Public History. Her research centers on nineteenth century with a focus on the Indigenous and American West. Her most recent co-authored book, Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), won the 2018 Nebraska Book Prize for Nonfiction. Her current monograph, Housing the Crows: Adult Indian Education and Cultural Conflict, chronicles the Crow Nation's engagement with American empire-building in the assimilation era. Holding a Ph.D. in History from the University of Nebraska, Dr. Wingo also specializes in digital and public history, particularly examining tools that empower citizen scholars and aid them in co-creation of history.
Dr. Nicasio Urbina
urbinan@uc.edu
(513)556-1838
A Ph.D. graduate of Georgetown University , Dr. Nicasio Urbina is a Professor of Latin American Studies in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses are Spanish literary criticism, genre theory, semiotics, narratology with a strong focus on Central American literature and culture. He has taught seminars on the Latin American novel, the short story, Central American literature, and creative writing. He has published nine books of literary criticism, short stories, and poetry; and has edited nine books on diverse topics. In 2015 he received the Rieveschl Award for Creative and Scholarly Work. Currently Dr. Urbina serves as the Director of Graduate Studies.
Dr. Patricia Valladares- Ruiz
valladpa@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)556-0402
Dr. Patricia Valladares-Ruiz is an Associate Professor of Latin American and Carribean Literature and Film at the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. Her research interests are Latin American and Caribbean literature, film, and popular culture. She also is interested in neo-slave narratives and environmental imagination in colonial Spanish America. A Ph.D. graduate of Université de Montréal, Dr. Valladares-Ruiz is the author of Narrativas del descalabro: La novela venezolana en tiempos de revolución (Tamesis, 2018), Sexualidades disidentes en la narrativa cubana contemporánea (Tamesis, 2012), and various book chapters and articles published in Revista Hispánica Moderna, MLN: Modern Language Notes, Revista Iberoamericana, Romance Quarterly, and Hispania.
Dr. Jorge Espinoza
espinojm@uc.edu
(513)556-1558
Dr. Jorge Espinoza is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies in the Department or Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. A Ph.D. graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Espinoza’s research concentrations in Central American Literature are migration narratives and poetry. Within Latin American studies, Dr. Espinoza’s research foci are Latin American film/TV, graphic narrative, and comics. Dr. Espinoza is also a poet and a creative translator. His most recent collaborative translation project centers on the work of Costa Rican poet, Yolanda Eunice Odio. Dr. Espinoza’s most recent published work include, “Círculos viciosos: Migración y violencia en la narrativa y el cine trans-centroamericanos” and a book chapter entitled, “Drawing Up a ‘Post’-Latin America: The Possibilities and Limits of Gender Imagination in Post-Apocalyptic, Post-Human, and Post-Historical Graphic Narrative.”
Dr. Flavia María Cunha Bastos
bastosf@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)556-2520
Dr. Flavia Maria Bastos is Professor in Visual Arts Education, in the School of Art, University of Cincinnati. She also directs the Art Futures Program, a community- based initiative that prepares local youth for professional careers and college via socially engaged art . A Ph.D. of Indiana University, her research and scholarship are indebted to her Brazilian roots. Dr. Bastos has been the Director of the Higher Education Division of the National Art Education Association. She has also received the Ziegefeld Award of the International Society for Education through Art (2009) for her distinguished service in international art education. Her books include Transforming City Schools through Art: Approaches to Meaningful K-12 Learning, (2012) and the anthology Connecting Creativity Research and Practice in Art Education: Foundations, Pedagogies, and Contemporary Issues, recently released by the National Art Education Association.
Dr. Sarah Jackson
Jacks2sh@ucmail.uc.ed
(513)556-5781
Dr. Sarah Jackson is the Department Head and a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. As an anthropological archaeologist and graduate of Harvard University, her research focuses on ancient Mesoamerica and Classic Maya culture. Within these research foci, she is working on reconstructing aspects of a Classic Maya material worldview by using data from hieroglyphic and iconographic sources. This work might be applied to understand the ways that indigenous material perspectives might impact and transform archaeological field practices. Dr. Jackson has currently teamed with the Digital Scholarship Center at UC to work on a data project related to analysis of archaeological publications to better understand implicit archaeological narratives regarding artifacts and excavated materials.
Dr. Laura D. Jenkins
jenkinla@ucmail.uc.ed
(513)556-3308
Dr. Laura D. Jenkins is a Professor of Political Science and a Ph.D. graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Her research focuses on social justice policies in the context of culturally diverse democracies, including India, Indonesia, South Africa, and the United States. Her book Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India (Penn Press 2019) reveals how "religious freedom" arguments and laws have undermined the religious freedom of women, lower castes, and religious minorities. As President of the South Asian Muslim Studies Association, she works to connect scholars from different disciplines and regions to create conference panels and exchange ideas.In her articles, she analyzes religious freedom and conversion, competing minorities’ claims for affirmative action, colonial and contemporary government anthropology, the role of social science in anti-discrimination law.
Dr. Briana Alcántar-Leavitt
leavitba@ucmail.uc.edu
(513)-556-4478
Dr. Briana Alcántar-Leavitt teaches Latin American History in the department of History at the University of Cincinnati. A Ph.D. graduate of the University of California, Dr. Alcántar-Leavitt, specializes in the colonial period. Her research focuses on gender and religion in colonial and nineteenth-century Central America. Her most recent book, Alone at the Altar: Single Women and Devotion in Guatemala, 1670-1870 (Stanford University Press, 2018), considers how non-elite single women forged alliances with the Catholic Church in Guatemala's colonial capital, and the ways that those alliances shaped local religion, the spiritual economy, late colonial reform efforts, and post-Independence politics. Her new book project, The Virgin's Wrath, examines gender relations, Mayan Catholicism, and violence in eighteenth-century Chiapas.
Stephan P. Fiol
fiolsn@ucmail.uc.edu
Dr. Stephan P. Fiol is an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at The University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music (CCM). A Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Illinois, Dr. Fiol’s research foci are music, dance, ritual practice, media and the histories of commercial and folkloric cultural representation the Uttarakhand Himalayas and North India. His many investigations have been published in journals such as Ethnomusicology, Journal of Asian Studies, and Ethnomusicology Forum. His research has been funded by fellowships from Fulbright-Nehru, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. His most recent book is titled, Recasting Folk in the Himalayas: Indian Music, Media and Social Mobility (2017). Trained in classical piano, Fiol is currently organizing a musical Excursions Abroad in Guatemala from May 29-June 7, 2020.
María I. Ortiz
Maria.ortiz@uc.edu
Dr. María Ortiz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. Dr. Ortiz started to teach full time at UCBCA during the fall of 2013. She teaches all basic level and intermediate courses of Spanish language. She also serves the department, college, university and the community through activities and programming that promote diversity and inclusion.
Students
Andrea Beaudoin
beaudoaa@mail.uc.edu
Andrea Beaudoin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Arabic and Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati an MA/BA graduate of The National University of Colombia, she has worked as an editorial assistant, copywriter, press assistant, book-marketing assistant and proofreader. She has also taught literature, argumentative structures and foreign languages in French. Her main research interests are: Creative Writing, Latin American contemporary literature, Women and Gender studies, Colombian contemporary novel and Meta-fiction. Ms. Beaudoin is currently working in a creative dissertation that has been awarded the Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowships (2019-2020).
Julia Escobar Villegas is a graduate student at the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a M.A. in Spanish. Julia is currently completing her Ph.D. and pursuing a graduate certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research interests include Colonial Spanish American Literature, Contemporary Latin American Literature, the relation between literature and philosophy, Literary Theory, Feminist Theory, Creative Writing, Literary Translation, and Foreign Language Teaching Methods. Her most recent paper presentation is “Excellences & Perfections by Amalia Ulman: The Selfie as Performance” at the Third Annual Kentucky Gender and Women’s Studies Conference. Julia currently works as Assistant Editor of the Cincinnati Romance Review and was the recipient of the 2017 TAFT Graduate Summer Fellowship.
Gabriela Falconi Piedra
falconga@mail.uc.edu
Originally from Ecuador, Gabriela is a Ph.D. graduate student in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. She holds a BA in Sociology and Political Sciences from The Central University of Ecuador and an M.A. in Peruvian and Latin American Literature from the National University of San Marcos in Peru. Gabriela has worked in the public sector of the Andean region as a Specialist Advisor and Consultant to the Governments of Ecuador and Peru, and as an International Officer of the Andean Community on issues of culture. Her research interests are Latin American literature, contemporary Andean narrative, Cultural Policies, Women and Gender studies and Human Rights. Her most recent book is entitiled, Pipo, el dragon (2010). She has also published various book chapters including, "La luna y el cajón" and the Prólogo y selección de cuento ecuatoriano Antologías Binacionales de Cuento y Poesía (1998).
Victor Vimos
vimosve@mail.uc.edu
Victor Vimos is a Ph.D. graduate student in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. As a poet, anthropologist, and editor, his research focuses are rituality, power, interculturality, identity, literature, and poetry. A MA graduate of Anthropology at the National University of San Marcos Lima- Perú, Victor has sustained research on rituality within the field of artistic creation. These research foci led to the publication of his most recent article is titled, “Símbolo y Poder en la novela El rincón de los Justos de Jorge Velasco Mackenzie.” His most recent book, Reaparición Incesante: Antología Poética de Euler Granda. Selección y estudio introductorio was published in 2017. Apart from research, Victor has published seven collections of poetry.
Tomás Mairena-Arce
arcemate@mail.uc.edu
Tomás Mairena-Arce is a Ph.D. graduate student at the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages at the University of Cincinnati. Having received his MA at UC and a BA in Philology and Communication in the National Autonmous University of Nicaragua, his short story, “Flores de la trinchera” (2012) was included in the national anthology. His most recent publication is an article entitled, “La influencia de Hamlet y su contextulizacion a través de elementos cinematograficos en la obra de C.M.R.” Tomás is also a scriptwriter and documentary filmmaker.
Dr. Alberto Juvenal Delgado
delgadj@ucmail.uc.edu
Dr. Alberto Juvenal Delgado is a Spanish instructor at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Delgado graduated with his Doctorate of Veterinarian Medicine from the Autonomous University of Mexico in 1980. From 1982 to 1985, he worked as a teacher at the University of Puebla. In 1998, Dr. Delgado obtained an MA in Spanish Literature from the University of Cincinnati. After, he began his career as a Spanish teacher at Moeller Highschool where he created and coordinated a Student Exchange Program with Zaragoza Spain. Apart from teaching, Dr. Delgado frequently displays his large collection of ceremonial and traditional pieces from over six Hispanic masks at cultural and university gatherings.
Jordan is a BA student at the University of Cincinnati. She currently works in the main office of the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures.
Rodrigo Marino
marinopr@mail.uc.edu
Rodrigo Marino is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati. Having graduated with an BA in Literary Studies and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the National University of Colombia, Rodrigo’s research interests include: contemporary Latin American literature, contemporary Colombian narrative; Creative Writing; Digital Humanities; and Film Studies. Rodrigo has previously worked in academic editorial coordination, proofreading, copywriting and translation. In 2016, he received the Susan E. Cogan Creative Writing Scholarship Awarded and in 2015 his novel Fugas de la memoria (Memory leaks) was a finalist the National Novel Prize Nuevas voces in Colombia. His most recent article publication is titled, “Las formas de la historia: narratividad, discurso y metaficción en La forma de las ruinas de Juan Gabriel Vásquez”
Tiffanie Clark
Clark2t8@mail.uc.edu
Tiffanie Clark is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literature at the University of Cincinnati. Having graduated with an MA in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Miami in Ohio, Tiffanie’s research interests are modernism, gender, (de) colonization, race, border, and indigeneity in poetry, prose, short stories and nonfictional essays produced in the United States and Central America. Currently she has received the Taft Dissertation Scholarship in support of her project, Central Americans in Movement: A Diasporist Revival of Poesía Comprometida in which she considers diaspora, border, and hybridity theories in order to find the continuities and discontinuities between the poetic production of Central American politically engaged poets of the twentieth century with contemporary poets of Central descent in the United States. Her recent publications are: “Ilka Oliva Corado’s Poetry of the Diaspora” and “La evolución espiritual en tres obras de Amado Nervo.” Currently, Tiffanie is an intern for the Spanish for Health and Social Work Certificate.
Ærin Espinosa
espinoar@mail.uc.edu
Ærin Espinosa is an MA graduate student in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The University of Cincinnati. A graduate of The University of New Mexico in English and Philosophy with a concentration in Creative Writing, Ærin’s work seeks to combine theory with personal narrative to generate new insights. His research interests include queer theory, trans studies, continental philosophy, and creative nonfiction. Ærin is currently working on a memoir and is a certified yoga instructor.