Associate Professor | Author | Expert in Migration Studies, Andean Cultures & Intercultural Communication
Dr. Cuya Gavilano is a scholar, educator, and program leader, currently serving as Associate Professor of Latin American Cultures at Arizona State University. She is the author of Fictions of Migration: Narratives of Displacement in Peru and Bolivia, an analysis of migration narratives in Andean film, literature, and cultural production within the context of regional neoliberal transformations [read the book review here].
Her research portfolio spans Andean Studies, migration studies, film analysis, contemporary Latin American cultural studies, and human geography, with current projects exploring cultural narratives of the post–Cold War era, the Anthropocene, and Andean popular culture.
Her award-winning scholarship has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, and the ASU Public History Fund. She has also held visiting professorships at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and the University of Bordeaux Montaigne, France, and was nominated for Examples of Excelencia: Latino Student Success in Higher Education for her leadership in the Latinx+1 initiative.
With more than 20 years of teaching experience, Dr. Cuya Gavilano has a proven track record in curriculum innovation, faculty leadership, and intercultural education. As Faculty Lead for the Spanish for the Professions Program at ASU, she designs and directs a forward-thinking curriculum that equips students for high-level intercultural engagement in a global job market, combining advanced Spanish communication skills with deep cultural competence in U.S.-Latinx and Latin American contexts.
e-mail: Lorena.Cuya.Gavilano@asu.edu
More than survival . . .
Across the Andes, migration is more than movement—it’s a story of power, identity, and transformation. Fictions of Migration reveals how Peruvian and Bolivian cinema and literature reimagine the migrant not as a victim of crisis, but as a source of knowledge and cultural renewal.