As a specialist in Contemporary Latin America Studies, I research national and trans-national flows, as well as social inequality in the Andes. My current research is about the affective epistemes and aesthetics of migration in Andean countries such as Peru and Bolivia. Other research interests include the cultural connections between the Chinese and African Diasporas in Andean countries. The unifying theme of my research is the flow and transnationalization of narrative works, people, and ideas in the context of global socio-economic exchanges, an aspect that is fundamental to understanding contemporary Latin America society in the so called Age of Migration.
I teach a variety of courses that include Spanish for the Professions, Latin American Literature, Film, and Culture, Latino/a Literature in the U.S., Comparative Literature of the Americas, composition, rhetoric, narrative, theater, and Spanish as a second language. During the last ten years, I have been teaching in both English and Spanish, in and outside of the U.S., I adapt my classroom activities according to my students’ varying backgrounds—graduate, undergraduate, heritage speakers, as well as students who have no previous knowledge of Spanish.
My work at the university level started in Peru, where I gave classes at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, and the Universidad Nacional de Ingienería. I have also worked as coordinator of language and literature courses at the Universidad Nacional de Ingienería, and as Counselor for the National Language Evaluation (2004, 2005) in the Ministerio de Educación del Perú [Education Ministry].