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Nuria Vilanova

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Assistant Professor World Languages and Cultures

Núria Vilanova teaches Latin American Culture, Literature and Cinema. Her research is devoted to the impact of social change and migration on cultural production. She works on textual and cinematic narratives of violence, inequality and poverty, particularly in the Andean region and the Mexican-US border. After completing her PhD at the University of Liverpool, UK (1993), Vilanova lived and worked in several Latin American countries for over fifteen years. She has also taught in Europe. She is the author of Border Texts: Writing Fiction from Northern Mexico (San Diego University Press, 2007) and The Impact of Social Change upon Peruvian Literature (1970-1990) (Edwin Mellen, 1998). She is currently working on a third book about the representation of indigenous peoples on Latin American cinema. She joined American University in 2009.

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Office
CAS-World Lang and Cultures
Jack Child Hall - 207
T: 12:00pm-2:00pm Th: 10:00am-12:00pm
Contact Info
(202) 885-2393

Send email to Nuria Vilanova

For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Research Interests

  • Andean Region: Peruvian literature and social change; fiction writing and the city; indigenous cultures (Bolivia, Peru)
  • Mexico: literature and culture: territoriality and cultural processes; artistic/literary production and the border; migration and culture: memory/anonymity
  • Latin American Cinema: representation of indigenous peoples; violence; migration
  • Migration and Culture: Mexico-US border; Peruvian rural/urban diasporas 
  • Narratives of Poverty and Violence (Cinema, Documentary, Literature- Fiction and poetry- Music and Lyrics): Mexico-US border; Mexico City; Lima

Professional Presentations

 Invited Lectures (a selection):

  • “Andean Representations in Latin American Cinema”, Ohio State University. May 2011.
  • “Border Theory and Literature”,  Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia, July 2009.
  • “Memoria y anonimato: representaciones discursivas de las muertas de Juárez.” Discursos sobre la pobreza: Literatura, artes visuales, ciencias sociales- América Latina y países luso-africanos.  Centre Stefano Franscini,  Monte Verità (Ascona, Suiza), organized by Zürich Universität (Prof. Martin Leinhard) June 13th to 18th, 2004.
  • “Frontera de silencio: narrativa y desierto en el norte de México.” Colonial Frontiers, Postcolonial Border Writing, Rituals and Warfare. Department of Spanish and Portuguese & Center for Latin American Studies. The Ohio State University. November 7th, 2003.
  • “Ethnicity and its Borders.” Gender and Ethnicity Across Divides. The Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities. The Ohio State University, April 4th, 2003.
  • “La otra frontera textual: la narrativa de la frontera norte de México.” The University of New Mexico, April 1999.
  • “El Perú ficcionalizado desde los Andes.” Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. Tijuana, Mexico. June 1998.
  • “La narrativa de la frontera norte de México.” Cátedra extraordinaria grandes maestros del exilio español. Universidad Autónoma de México. Mexico City. March 1998.
  • “La obra de Mario Bellatín. Una entrevista con el autor.” Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Mexico City. October 1998.
  • “El desierto y Gardea.” Homenaje  a Jesús Gardea. Museo de Antropología de México. Mexico City. October 1998.
  • “Images of Real Women: Social Change and Women’s Poetry in Present-day Peru.” The Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies. King’s College. The University of London, U.K. February 1996.
  • “A Marginal Literature? The Impact of Hora Zero on the Peru of the 1970s.” Ways of Working in Latin American Cultural Studies. The Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies. King’s College. The University of London, U.K. April 1995.
  • “Nation and Literature in Peru: ‘El desborde literario 1970-1990’.” Institute of Latin American Studies. The University of Liverpool, U.K. March 1995.

Scholarly Presentations (a selection):

  • “Decolonizing Indigenous Imaginary Through Cinema: The Case of Bolivia”, Fourth Conference on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP) in Latin America and the Caribbean, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Richmond, VA, October 15-17, 2015.
  • “Otras performances: la frontera de Crosthwaite en contraste”. Invited at the panel entitled: “Después del ´Boom¨de los Estudios Fronterizos (parte II)”. Latin American Studies Association. Chicago, May 21-24, 2014.
  • “(Des) colonización del imaginario indígena: revolución y cine”, Latin American Studies Association, DC, May 29th-June1st, 2013.
  • “Colonial Borders: Parody and Fiction on the North of Mexico”, Society for Latin American Studies Annual Conference (SLAS), University of Derby, U.K., April 8-10, 2005.
  • “Heterogeneity in the Narrative Discourse from the Northern Border of Mexico.” SLAS. Society for Latin American Studies conference. Annual Conference.The University of Liverpool, U.K. April 1998.

 

Selected Publications

Books:

Border Texts: Writing Fiction from Northern Mexico (San Diego State University Press), 2007.

Social Change and Literature in Peru (1970-1990) (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press), 1999.

Articles in Books (a selection):

  • "Women Writing in the Andes: A Panoramic View since Colonial Times", in Rodríguez, Ileana and Mónica Szurmuk (eds.), The Cambridge History of Latin American Women's Literature. (New York: Cambridge University Press) pp. 364-381, 2015.
  • “Desterritorialization”, English translation of Irwin, Robert and Mónica Szurmuk (eds.), Dictionary of Latin American Cultural Studies (Gainesville: Florida University Press) pp. 120-125, 2012.
  • “Desterritorialización”, in Irwin, Robert and Mónica Szurmik (eds.), Diccionario de Estudios Culturales,  (México, D.F.: Instituto Mora)  pp. 80-84, 2009.
  • “Territorialidades académicas y poscolonialidades disciplinarias: los estudios de América Latina en España” in Rodríguez, Ileana and María Martínez-García eds.Postcolonialidades/históricas/(in)visibilidades/hispanoamericanas/colonialismos  ibéricos. (Barcelona: Anthropos) pp. 133-149, 2007.
  • “Fronteras coloniales: mitos, ficción y parodia en el norte de México” in Usandizaga, Helena ed., La palabra recuperada. Mitos prehispánicos en la literatura latinoamericana. (Madrid/Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/Vervuert) pp. 241-256, 2006.
  • “Memoria y anonimato: representaciones discursivas de las muertas de Juárez.” Discursos sobre (l)a pobreza: América Latina y/e países luso-africanos. (Madrid/Frankfurt am Main: Iberoamericana/Vervuert) pp. 145-59, 2006.
  •  “Miradas infantiles en la narrativa del Perú”. In Hall, Stephen and William Rowe (eds.), Studies in Latin American Literature and Culture in Honour of James Higgins, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies Special Issue, Liverpool. April 2005, 228-37.
  • “La narrativa agotada: Perú, violencia y otros textos.” In Mark R. Cox, Pachatricay (El mundo al revés): Ensayos sobre violencia política y cultura peruana desde 1980. (Lima: Editorial San Marcos), 2004.
  • “La ficción de los marginados: Cronwell Jara y el efecto de los cambios sociales en la narrativa peruana reciente”. Memorias de JALLA Tucumán 1995. Tucumán, 391-400,1997.

Articles in Journals (a selection):

  • “Post-indigenismo de celuloide: la deconstrucción del imaginario indígena en las películas de Claudia Llosa”, in Revista Crítica de Literatura Latinoamericana. Vol. 80, Año XXXX Lima-Boston (2014), 345-356.
  • “Descolonización y cine: la propuesta indígena de Jorge Sanjinés hoy”, in Bolivian Studies Journal. Vol. 19 (2012-2013).
  • “Els cànons de la literatura hispanoamericana: reformulacions estètiques i resignificacions socials” in E. Sullà ed., El cànon literari: cap a una definició operativa. Literatures 5. Segona época, 2007. Barcelona. Associació d´escriptors en llengua catalana, 45-55, 2007.
  • “Mesa redonda de homenaje a Pedro Páramo, de Juan Rulfo”, Casa de América de Catalunya, Barcelona, May 2005. Published by Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, Dartmouth College: Latinoamericana Editores. n. 63, 2006.
  • “Literatura y frontera: de México a EEUU”, Quimera. N. 258, June. Ed. Núria Vilanova, 2005.
  • “Another Textual Frontier: Contemporary Fiction on the Northern Mexican Border.” Bulletin of Latin American Research (BLAR) Vol. 21. No. 1. January: 73-98, 2002.
  • “El espacio textual de Jesús Gardea.” Literatura mexicana. Vol. 11. No. 2: 145-176, 2001.
  • “La ficción de los márgenes.” Revista de crítica literaria latinoamericana. Dartmouth College: Latinoamericana Editores. No. 51. May 2000.
  • “The Emerging Literature of the Peruvian Underclass.” Bulletin of Latin American Research. Vol. 17. No. 1. January 1998: 1-15.
  • “Dinámica de la narrativa peruana reciente.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (BHS). Vol. 83: 289-296, 1996.
  •  “Mariátegui y el ‘desborde literario’.” Cuadernos americanos. No. 51. May-June 1995.