Faculty and Staff
Latin American Studies
- Phone: (507) 222-4240
- Fax: (507) 222-5942
Faculty
Chair of Spanish
Director of Latin American Studies
(PhD from University of Minnesota) teaches XIX century Latin American literature at Carleton, as well as the Introductions to Latin American Studies and Latin American Literature. Her main areas of interest are literary and social modernity in Latin America, cultural and critical theory, and the Frankfurt School. Her research focuses on cultural theory and criticism and she has published articles on Adorno, Lukács, Benjamin, Garcia Canclini, Schwarz, Dalton and Argueta. Together with Christopher Chiappari, she translated Néstor Garcia Canclini's Hybrid Cultures: strategies for entering and leaving modernity. She edited a special issue of Cultural Critique (Fall 2001) titled Critical Theory in Latin America. Currently she is finishig a book of essays entitled Frankfurt Minima: essays in aesthetics and culture.
Other Faculty Involved In The Department/Program
Ph.D. from Northwestern. Teaches Forces of Nature, Women Writers in Latin American, Latin American Drama, Novels of Revolution and Dictatorship, and Recent Trends in Latin American Narrative: Testimony and Pop Culture. Her teaching and research focus on both contemporary Latin American narrative and theater with a strong interest in women's writings. She has published on authors such as Mayra Montero, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Luisa Valenzuela, and Griselda Gambaro. She is on the editorial board of Latin American Theater Review and a reader for other journals such as Letras Femeninas and Gestos. Becky has on occasion led the Spanish Winter Seminar in Mexico. Other travel experiences include Argentina, Guatemala, and Spain. Syllabi can be found at http://www.people.carleton.edu/~bboling/beckyboling.html
(PHD City University of New York) teaches twentieth century Peninsular Literature and Film at Carleton as well as Latin American Literature. His main areas of interest are literary theory, philosophy and aesthetics. His research focuses on the twentieth century Spanish essay and poetry: Unamuno, Ortega, Machado, Zambrano as well as Cuban literature: Casal, Lezama and Virgilio Piñera.
Since 2001. Jose Cerna-Bazan received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and studied Amerindian linguistics and cultural theory in his native Peru. He is particularly interested in the relation of literary experimentation and cultural discourses in contexts marked by social heterogeneity. He has published articles on contemporary Latin American poetry and narrative, and a book, Sujeto a cambio, on the work of César Vallejo. He is currently working on a project on society, politics, and representation in Peru (1960-2000).
Assistant Professor of History (BA, Stanford University; MA & Ph.D. University of California, San Diego). Teaching interests include: Mesoamerican society and culture, the formation of Mexican nationalism, Latin American religion, and the African Diaspora in Latin America. Professor Fisher's current research project examines the evolution of Cuitlateca, Tepozteca, Nahua, and Purepecha communities in the mid-Balsas Valley of Guerrero, Mexico under Spanish colonial rule. Upcoming publications include a book-length manuscript based on his research and a co-edited volume on ethnicity and identity in colonial Latin America. E-mail afisher@carleton.edu

(anthropology) (M.Phil. Cambridge, Ph.D. Harvard) is interested in the ethnography of the Greater Southwest and Mesoamerica. In Mexico, he has conducted research among the Tarahumara (Rarámuri) of Chihuahua, and the Tzotzil of Chiapas. In the U.S., he has worked with indigenous peoples of southern California and on the Hopi-Navaho land dispute. His current research focuses on the politics of identity, symbolism, and interethnic relations in the Sierra Tarahumara of northwest Mexico. Jay teaches courses on the comparative history of native peoples and the state in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.; ethnicity, gender, and exchange in Latin America; and anthropological approaches to the study of religion, economics, and indigenous rights.
Director of Political Economy
Professor Montero received his Ph.D. at Columbia University. His research focuses on the political economy of state reform and particularly decentralization in Latin America and Western Europe. He is the author of Shifting States in Global Markets: Subnational Industrial Policy in Contemporary Brazil and Spain, co-editor with David Samuels of Decentralization and Democracy in Latin America, and Brazilian Politics: Reforming a Democratic State in a Changing World (Polity Press, 2006). Prof. Montero has published articles in Comparative Politics, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Studies in Comparative International Development, Current History, and Latin American Politics and Society. His courses include comparative democratization, comparative electoral and political party systems, Latin American politics and political economy, European political economy, and international and comparative political economy. He is the director of Carleton's Political Economy Concentration and also leads the off-campus seminar on the European Union and subnational political economy in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Prof. Montero's web page
Since 1985. Diane Pearsall is Senior Lecturer. She did her graduate work at the University of Michigan. She specializes in foreign language pedagogy, oversees the Language Assistant Program, and is largely responsible for the implementation of activities related to the Beginning and Intermediate levels of Spanish. She has also served as director of the Carleton Morelia Program.

Adriana Estill teaches courses on U.S. Latino/a literature and twentieth century American literature, especially poetry. She also teaches in the American Studies program. She has published essays on Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo and recently contributed to the Gale encyclopedia of Latino/a authors with scholarly entries on Sandra María Esteves and Giannina Braschi. Her interest in popular culture has led to published articles on Mexican telenovelas and their literary origins as well as to current research into the perceptions and constructions of Latina beauty in contemporary Latino literature and the mass media. Degrees: Stanford B.A.; Cornell, M.A., Ph.D.
Coordinator of Academic Civic Engagement
Adrienne Falcon, Visiting Lecturer (University of Chicago, ABD) focuses on urban sociology, sociology of youth and community organizations, environmental sociology and ethnography of Latin America. She has conducted research on a diverse immigrant community in Chicago and on youth and education in Cuba and Ecuador. Her current work focuses on questions of power and social change through community organizing. She teaches courses in introductory sociology, urban sociology and ethnography of Latin America.
Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences
Beverly Nagel (sociology) received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Stanford University. Her research interests concern rural development, grassroots action, and social change in Latin America. Her current research focuses on agricultural development, ethnic relations, and social movements on
Paraguay's eastern frontier. She has also conducted research on rural development and migration patterns in Mexico, and has served as a consultant on both urban and rural development projects for the Inter-American Development Bank and the Fundación Intermon. In addition to introductory sociology, she teaches courses on social research methods, Third World development, population, social movements, and the ethnography of Latin America.








