Northern Illinois University
World Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Research Interests

I grew up in a German-speaking household, so English was my second language. In fact, I had to learn English twice because after spending four months in Germany when I was three, I forgot how to speak it. I began studying Spanish as a freshman in high school and added French when I was a sophomore. I enjoyed languages so much that in college I decided to major in my two favorite subjects: Spanish and music. The highlight of my undergraduate experience was my junior year when I lived and studied in Barcelona, Spain. After returning from Spain, I planned to attend graduate school and specialize in Spanish Peninsular literature but the Latin American novel course I took during my first semester at the U of Illinois changed everything; I knew that Latin American literature was what I wanted to read and study.

My research and teaching interests continue to focus on contemporary Latin American literature, with special emphasis on Central America and the Caribbean. While my dissertation was on Nicaraguan poets Gioconda Belli, Daisy Zamora, Michele Najlis, Vidaluz Meneses and Rosario Murillo, I have also written and published works on Ernesto Cardenal, Roque Dalton, Nicolás Guillén, Miguel Angel Asturias, Humberto Ak'abal, Rosa María Britton and Gloria Guardia. In 1999 I was fortunate enough to be invited as a speaker to the First International Conference on Panamanian Literature. As a result, I met two compelling writers, Gloria Guardia and Rosa María Britton. Since that time, I have been fascinated by their fictional representations of US-Panama relations present in their novels, short stories and theater.

In 2026 my book on the Guatemalan poet Ana María Rodas was published. As part of Casasola’s series on Central American writers, Rodas counts as a major figure in Latin American letters. Not only was she the first truly feminist poet in Central America, but she opened the doors for other women writers who came after her. While she is an icon, the number of critical studies on her work are surprisingly few compared to other important figures in Central American poetry, such as Roque Dalton and Ernesto Cardenal. Ana María Rodas: Corazón y cerebro: poesía completa (1973-2015) y acercamientos críticos includes all five volumes of Rodas’s poetry, plus some of her unedited work published after 2015, as well as a selection of critical articles, biographical and bibliographic information, and photos and book cover artwork. I am especially proud of my extensive study of Rodas’s poetry (the only one to date that includes all five volumes of her poetry) as well as a translation of a book chapter from German to Spanish, giving Latin Americanists access to a systematic study on Rodas’s first four books. The purpose of the volume is to address the needs of the general reader as well as the student and academic, bringing together useful resources in one publication.

In addition to my recent research on Ana María Rodas, I have continued with my work oriented on twentieth-century Panamanian literature. Currently, I am co-editor for Panamanian literature for the Library of Congress’s Handbook on Latin American Studies. Also, I have recently submitted a paper to the online journal Istmo about the Afro-Caribbean populations of Panama’s Atlantic coast. Still in the works is my translation of Joaquín Beleño novel, Gamboa Road Gang, and a related paper on Silver Women who traveled to Panama during the Canal construction period.

My research on Panama has made my segway into the Caribbean and Afro-Latin American literature a natural progression. As a result, I regularly teach a course on Caribbean literature and incorporate Afro-Latin American writers in my courses. Thanks to my professional friendship with Juanamaría Cordones-Cook from the University of Missouri, we were able to bring this Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker to premier El renacimiento negro de la Habana/ The Black Renaissance of Havanna in DeKalb’s Egyptian Theater in 2023 and have now secured a donation of documentaries for the Rare Book room in Founder’s Library to enrich students’ learning with authentic materials by Afro-Cuban writers, artists, musicians and intellectuals.

Latin American literature and culture continue to inspire me. The creativity of the Afro-Cuban writers and artists from the documentaries, some of whom I have met in person, is impressive. Moreover, the visits of figures to NIU such as Elena Poniatowska, Sergio Ramírez, Rigoberta Menchú, Rosa María Britton and Vidaluz Meneses have enriched my life. Reading, writing and discovering about Latin America is a valuable core on which to base an understanding of our world and ourselves.

Publications

Books

• Corazón y cerebro: Poesía completa de Ana María Rodas (1973-2015) y acercamientos críticos. Washington D.C. and Honduras: Casasola, 2026.
• Rubén Darío y El correo de la tarde.  Valencia:  Instituto de Estudios Modernistas, 1996.

Articles in Referred Journals

• Republication of “Novela y Nación: El caso de Rosa María Britton y Gloria Guardia” in Gloria Guardia (Panamá): acercamientos críticos. Nilsa Lasso-Von Lang. Casasola Editores, 2024 (258-270).
• "Rewriting the Biracial Love Story in Rosa María Britton’s Esa esquina del paraíso" in Middle Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies, 4(1), pp.124–141. DOI:http://doi.org/10.23870/marlas.301 [first appeared June 2020]
• ""Autores desafiantes": la poesía de resistencia y renovación de Luis Alfredo Arango en Guatemala" in Hispanic Journal 39, No. 2 Fall 2018 Special Issue:  Modern Latin American Poetry (95-110).
• "El sujeto indígena y la modernidad en Leyendas de Guatemala y El espejo de Lida Sal" in Cien años de magia: Lecturas de Miguel Angel Asturias en el centenario de su nacimiento. Edited by Oralia Preble-Niemi.  Guatemala:  F&G Editores, 2006.
• "Procesos de transculturación en El diario que a diario de Nicolás Guillén". Casa de las Américas, No. 240, julio-septiembre, 2005 (68-79).
• "'Para demostrar que podemos aportar algo al país': la poesía de Humberto Ak'abal y la nueva nación guatemalteca." Doce autores guatemaltecos. Edited by Luis Jiménez and Oralia Preble-Niemi. Guatemala: Artemis Edinter, 2004.
• "El poder polivalente de las metáforas en Libertad en llamas de Gloria Guardia." Explicación de textos literarios. Vol. XXXI-1 (2002-2003), 5-20.
• "La novela canalera como acto contestatario de la nación panameña" in the on-line journal Istmo, December 2003.
• "Novela y nación: el caso de Rosa María Britton y Gloria Guardia" in Revista Iberoamericana. Vol. LXVII, No. 196 (June-September 2001), 451-460.
• "El sujeto indígena y la modernidad en 'Leyenda de la Tatuana'." Alba de América. Vol. 19 (2000), 99-106.
• "'Non debe el cronista dejar de fascer su oficio': el dilema ante la historia en El estrecho dudoso de Ernesto Cardenal." Cultura de Guatemala. Año XXI, Vol. I, Guatemala: Universidad Rafael Landívar (enero-mayo 2000), 89-102.
• "El debate historiográfico en Las historias prohibidas del Pulgarcito de Roque Dalton." Cultura de Guatemala: Homenaje al centenario de Cesar Brañas y Jorge Luis Borges. Año XX. Vol. II, Guatemala: Universidad de Rafael Landívar (mayo-agosto 1999), 105-124.
• "El diálogo entre la literatura y la historia en Las historias prohibidas del Pulgarcito de Roque Dalton." The Other Roques. Edited by Dennis Seager and Rafael Lara. University of the South Press, 1999, 15-32.
• "El poeta y el lector revolucionario en Historias prohibidas del pulgarcito de Roque Dalton." Casa de las Américas No. 203 (abril-junio 1996), 108-115.
• "En torno al discurso revolucionario y poético en Roque Dalton." Cincinnati Romance Review Vol. 15 (1996), 144-149.

Other Publications

• All entries on Panamanian literatura in Handbook of Latin American Studies, Vol. 78 (forthcoming, 2026). [Introduction to Panamanian literatura. Entries 1064, 1066, 1078, 1079, 1080, 1084, 1086, 1091, 1094, 1099, 1100, 1103]
• All entries on Panamanian literature in Handbook of Latin American Studies, Vol. 76. Ed. Katherine McCann. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2022. [Introduction to Panamanian literature, pp.316-317; Entries 1280, 1286, 1287, 1289, 1291, 1295, 1297, 1298, 1299, 1300, 1301, 1302, 1303, 1305, 1306, 1307, 1311, 1312, 1313, 1315, 1316, 1317, 1318, 1320, 1323, 1324, 1329, 1330, 1332]
• All entries on Panamanian literature in Handbook of Latin American Studies, Vol. 74. Ed. Katherine McCann. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020. [Introduction to Panamanian literature, pp.420-421; Entries 1815, 1816, 1824, 1848, 1849, 1869, pp.424-437]
• Translation of poems by Sara Tomé, Carolina Torres and Evelyn Y. Torres Mejía for Honduras: Women's Poems of Protest and Resistance (2009-2013). Spanish-English Bilingual Edition. Gen. Ed. Lety Elvir. Trans. Ed. María Roof. Washington:  Casasola Editores, 2015.  (356-377)
• Critical introduction “Rosa María Britton: Sobre Esa esquina del paraíso” in Del palenque a la escena:  Antología crítica de teatro afrolatinoamericano.  Edited by Juanamaría Cordones-Cook and María Mercedes Jaramillo.  Bogotá:  Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2012. (521-529)
• "'Para mí es importante el diálogo': una entrevista con la novelista panameña Gloria Guardia".  Cultura de Guatemala:  Narrativa hispanoamericana:  dilemas y expresión.  Año XXII. Vol.II, mayo-agosto 2001 (23-43).  Reprinted in SELA (South Eastern Latin Americanist), Vol. XLV, No. 3,4, Winter/Spring 2002 (55-68).  Also reprinted twice on-line in Perspectiva Ciudadana.com (Dominican Republic), November, 2003 (can be accessed at URL:  http://www/perspectivaciudadana.com/031108/ libros01.html) and El Patio de las Cayenas (Dominican Republic), November, 2003 (can be accessed at URL:  http://groups.msn.com/ ElPatiodelasCayenas/entrevistas.msnw?action=get_message&mview= I&ID_Message=1570)
• Entries for Gioconda Belli and Rosa María Britton in Noted Twentieth-Century Latin American Women: A Biographical Dictionary.  Cynthia Tompkins and David W. Foster.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press Company, 2000. 

Book Reviews

• Review of by Ein melodramatisches Genre im Wandel by Barbara Dröscher in MARLAS (Mid-Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies), December, 2025. https://marlasjournal.com/articles/10.23870/marlas.553
• Review of Perspectives on the Life and Works of Gabriel García Márquez. Caribbean Troubadour by Gustavo Arango in MARLAS (Mid-Atlantic Review of Latin American Studies), December, 2023. https://marlasjournal.com/articles/10.23870/marlas.450
• Review of El último juego and Libertad en llamasby Gloria Guardia. Letras femeninas, 2000.
• Review of Colibríes en el exilioby Ivon Gordon Vailakis. Feministas Unidas. November 1998, 40.

Recent Conference Papers

• “Representations of Silver Women in Joaquín Beleño’s Gamboa Road Gang and Ariel René Price’s Memorias de Boca Town” at the XX. SOCARE Congress: Women in the Caribbean. Fragments-Crossroads-Interconnections. Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Berlin, Germany, October 2025.
• “La mujer negra ausente en Sab” presented at the Afro-Cuban Legacies: Visual Arts, Literature, Theatre, Music and Religion Conference, sponsored by the University of Missouri at Columbia, April 2024.
• "Realidades contra ideales en la poesía de Vidaluz Meneses" presented on Facebook as part of a roundtable on the life and works of Vidaluz Meneses for the Festival de Poesía, Granada, Nicaragua, March 2022. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1141268159954489
• "Otras comunidades imaginadas en Limón Blues de Ana Cristina Rossi y Memorias de Bocas Town de Ariel René Pérez Price" delivered at the XI Coloquio-Taller RedIsca 2021: Centroamérica en el bicenitario de su independencia, sponsored by the Universität Osnabrück, November 2021 [virtual conference].
• "De romance a violación: Gamboa Road Gang en Panamá" delivered at the 74th Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference, sponsored by the University of Kentucky, April 2021 [virtual conference]
• "La intelectualidad erótica de Ana María Rodas" delivered at the XXVII Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos, March 2021 [virtual conference].
• "Writing during Genocide: The Creative Defiance of Nuevo Signo and RIN-78 in Guatemala" delivered at the 2020 MLA Annual Convention, Seattle, January 2020.  This paper is part of in a special session, Writing during Genocide, which I organized and chaired.
• "From Romance to Rape: Twentieth and Twenty-first Foundational Fictions" delivered at LASA (Latin American Studies Association). Boston, 2019.
• "Autores desafiantes: la poesía de resistencia y renovación de Luis Alfredo Arango en Guatemala" delivered at XXII Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos, Granada, Spain, June 2018.
• "Rewriting the Bi-Racial Love Story in Rosa María Britton's Esa esquina del paraíso" delivered at XXIII Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Centoramericanas (CILCA), New Orleans, March 2015.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Spanish, 1997
• M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Spanish, 1991
• B.A., Elmhurst College, Spanish and music, 1989