Sophie Bégin I am pursuing my final year as a Ph.D. candidate in Spanish. I hold a M.A. in Hispanic Studies with specialization in Spanish-America from McGill University as well as a B.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Studio Arts from Concordia University and have worked in different museum contexts in Canada and Mexico. My research focuses on the role of institutional archaeology in national mythmaking, the reduction of indigenous cultural diversity and construction of an official mestizo identity in 20th century Mexico. I received Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Joseph-Armand Bombardier scholarship to pursue my dissertation research on the National Anthropology Museum of Mexico, its ethics of collecting, museological approaches and spatial/material narration of the pre-Hispanic past.
Lidoly Chavez Guerra. Ph.D. Candidate in Hispanic Studies at McGill University. She holds a M.A. in Translation Studies from El Colegio de Mexico, where she studied and translated poetry by the Cree author Louise Bernice Halfe, and a B.A in Hispanic Language and Literature from the University of Havana. Her research fields are First Nations, Native American and Latin American indigenous literatures and cultures, Caribbean literature, feminism and gender studies, orality and literacy, colonialism and postcolonial thought.
Lilia Eskildsen Torres. I am currently a candidate for a PhD in Hispanic Studies in the Languages, Literatures and Cultures department. I was born and raised in México, but lived in Texas for 6 years, where I got my B.A. with a double major in Spanish and English language and literature, and my M.A. in Spanish. I am currently interested in Mexican contemporary literature, specially the emergent literary movement of Northern Mexico. Having been a folklórico dancer, I am also interested in Mexican culture and folklore and its representations, especially in dance, play and literature.
David Gil-Alzate. Filósofo (BA) and Magíster en Literatura Colombiana (MA), Universidad de Antioquia (Medellín, Colombia). MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish, New York University. PhD student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, McGill University. His interests include Latin American literature and philosophy, Don Quijote de la Mancha, origins of modernity, enlightenment and intellectual history.
Andrea González Márquez.
Augusto Gutiérrez. Was born in Managua, Nicaragua. PhD student and instructor in Hispanic Studies at McGill University. Holds an M.A. and B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Concordia University. Main interests include Writing, Orality and Translation, Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies, Latin American Short Narrative, and Colonial Discourse.
Patricio Kobek. Is a Ph.D. Candidate in Hispanic Studies at McGill University in his third year. He holds an Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and an M.A. in Hispanic studies from the University of Alberta. His dissertation focuses on the Historia de la villa imperial de Potosí by Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela, a text written in the early eighteenth-century. He has been a language instructor and course TA for the past three years for HISP 210 and 225.
Francisco Laucirica holds a B.A. and a Master’s in Spanish from the University of Ottawa. His Master’s research focused on historical novels and political discourse in Argentina. He his currently pursuing a PhD in Hispanic Studies.
Anne-Sophie Leroux. Is an MA candidate in Hispanic Studies at McGill University. She holds a BA with a major in Political Science with two minors, one in French Literature, and one in Hispanic Studies from McGill University. Her fluent English, French, Spanish, and intermediate Italian are manifestations of her drive to learn about languages. Currently concentrated on the theory of literature, theology, and on colonial studies, her focus moving forward will be Hispanic literature as to do research in this field.
Jake Levin. Coming to Montreal from Portland, Maine, Jake Levin is a Masters student in Hispanic Studies with a background in Spanish pedagogy and literature. He completed his undergraduate work at Bowdoin College, and received an MS in education from the University of Southern Maine. Jake moved to Montreal in 2014 after teaching high school Spanish for several years, and would like to pursue and eventually teach the literature of the Hispanic diaspora in the US and Canada. On the side, he is an avid clay target shooter and nature photographer.
Valerie Maurer. I obtained a B.A. in Literature from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 2003 and I submitted my thesis this summer on Nineteenth Century representations of the southern frontier in Chile. My area of research is the literary and cultural representations of the frontier in the early years of consolidation of the Latin American republics, with the particular aim of shedding light on indigenous representations and their political impact. My interest lies on the fields of book history, literary theory, history and anthropology.
Marie-Eve Monette. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Studies, currently finishing my dissertation Cinematic Representations of Decolonization in the Andes. My research analyzes how 21st -century cinematic representations of Andean cultures reflect and participate in decolonizing processes by creating a dialogic space for the deconstruction of Western-produced knowledge and the critical exploration of alternative Indigenous knowledge of this region and its peoples. This past summer, I was awarded the McGill Arts Graduate Student Travel Award and travelled to Peru to conduct research and interview film directors in both Lima and Puno. For four years, I was also a Spanish Language Instructor and a Teaching Assistant for different literature courses in Hispanic Studies. Teaching and assisting in these courses, as well as a class taken on indigenismo, led me to travel to Peru for the first time in 2010 to complete an Education Internship, and to conduct preliminary research for my dissertation.
Nelson Orbegoso Roman holds a Bachelor degree in Communications and Journalism issued by Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Lima, Peru). He has worked as a journalist and a language teacher (Spanish and English) over the last few years. He has a minor in Hispanic Studies issued by Université de Montréal. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Hispanic Studies at McGill University.
Mary Yaneth Oviedo. I am presently a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies and language instructor. I completed my B.A. Honours in Spanish Literature and Society and my M.A. in Hispanic Studies at Concordia University. My academic and research interests include contemporary construction and representation of History and Literature through mass media, as well as Latin American popular & noncanonical literatures and cultures from 1800 to the present, with special interest in class and gender. On a personal level, I am passionate about painting, photography, but above all about my daughter.
Meredith Richard.
Karuna Warrier. I have done my bachelors and masters in Hispanic Studies from the University of Delhi, India. I have submitted my M.Phil thesis titled Los Límites de la Traducción del Quijote en Malayalam in the same university. I am currently in my first year of Ph.D in Hispanic Studies at McGill University.