Research Interests
Early Modern Spanish and colonial and contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies; Border Studies; Visual Culture; Gender Studies; Philosophy; Multiliteracies and post-CLT pedagogies and approaches to the teaching of Spanish at all levels
Research In Area of specialization
My areas of research specialization are Early Modern Spanish and Colonial Latin American literature, history, and culture, with particular focus on early modern theories of war, state violence, gender, and surveillance. I have published articles on those subjects in numerous journals, including Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Hispanic Review, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and Bulletin of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. My current work on contemporary issues in Latin America draws on my knowledge of colonial Latin America and early modern Spain. I perceive many of today's challenges as continuities of ongoing colonial processes.
CURRENT project
My current book project, Thinking, Caring, and Doing in Troubled Times, responds to a question raised by Donna Haraway: What occurs when traditional Western thought paradigms are no longer viable? My approach is framed by two sets of phenomena: (1) global warming politics, including particularly extractivist activities in Latin America, and (2) the surge of authoritarian regimes and their growing appeal to certain populations worldwide. Through the study of cultural productions in Latin America, particularly literature, film, activism, and indigenous forms of knowledge, the book examines the kinds of thinking urgently needed in these challenging times. It further investigates how our knowledge practices can enhance our collective capacity for pragmatic thinking with care, avoiding the pitfalls of idealized and moralistic notions of care. My theoretical framework draws on indigenous epistemologies, Karen Barad’s agential realism, Thomas Nail’s philosophy of movement, and Whitehead’s process philosophy to provide crucial insights for our troubled times.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals
“The Social Spaces of Surveillance in Early Modern Spanish Military Architecture.” Spanish Journal of Cultural Studies. 21.2 (2020): 149-169
“Deploying the Classics: Military Humanism and Social Mobility in Spanish Military Manuals.” The Sixteenth Century Journal. 46.3 (2015): 603-623
“Early Modern Expressions of Nationhood in French and Dutch Translations of Bartolomé de Las Casas’ Brevísima relación.” Traversea. 4 (2014): 34-41 (N. Faber, student co-author)
“Masculinity, War, and Pursuit of Glory in Sepúlveda’s Gonzalo.” Hispanic Review. 80.3 (2012): 391-412
“Contesting the Word: The Crown and the Printing Press in Colonial Spanish America.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 89.4 (2012): 575-596. (Special Issue: Exploring the Print World of Early-Modern Iberia, ed. Alexander S. Wilkinson)
“Contesting the Word: The Crown and the Printing Press in Colonial Spanish America.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 89.4 (2012): 575-596. (Special Issue: Exploring the Print World of Early-Modern Iberia, ed. Alexander S. Wilkinson)
“Myth and Prophecy in Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda’s Crusading ‘Exhortación.’” Bulletin of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies. 35.1 (12/2010): 48-68
“(En)gendering Ethnicity: The Economy of Female Virginity in Guatemala,” in Radical Philosophy Review 2.2: 1999
Invited Articles
“Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation. Ed. Margaret King, New York: Oxford University Press, 09/2016
“Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Renaissance and Reformation. Ed. Margaret King, New York: Oxford University Press, 09/2016
Invited Book Review
Los De fato et libero arbitrio libri tres de Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Joaquín J. Sánchez Gázquez. Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 3-4: 2016
Los De fato et libero arbitrio libri tres de Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, Joaquín J. Sánchez Gázquez. Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 3-4: 2016
Book Chapter
“(En)gendering Ethnicity: The Economy of Female Virginity in Guatemala,” Philosophy and Everyday Life. Ed. Laura Duhan Kaplan. New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2002
“(En)gendering Ethnicity: The Economy of Female Virginity in Guatemala,” Philosophy and Everyday Life. Ed. Laura Duhan Kaplan. New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2002
Online Publications
“Response to Friendship, Kinship, and the Law - in the Mediterranean.” Iberian Connections 7, no.3 (2021): https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/articles/response-najera/
“Response to Friendship, Kinship, and the Law - in the Mediterranean.” Iberian Connections 7, no.3 (2021): https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/articles/response-najera/
“Gilles Deleuze: Coldness and Cruelty.” Iberian Connections, Workshop. https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/workshop/gilles-deleuze/