People
María Rosa Olivera-Williams
Associate Professor, Latin American Literature
Director, Latin American Studies Program
Faculty Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies
(PhD, Ohio State University, 1983)
Thematic interests: Latin American modern and contemporary representations of subjectivities and national identities; artistic projects from the Southern Cone; issues of dictatorship, democratic transition and traumatic memory.
Current research: “The Rhythms of Modernization: Tango, Ruin, and
Historical Memory in the Rio de la Plata Countries,” for which I received a J. William Fulbright Research Award. This new project questions how did tango, the popular Rio de la Plata phenomenon that encompasses music, dance, and lyrics, become the embodiment of modernization and a strong national symbol of Argentina and Uruguay.
Selected publications: El arte de crear lo femenino (Santiago, Chile: Cuarto Propio, forthcoming); El salto de Minerva: Intelectuales, género, Estado en América Latina, coeditor with Mabel Moraña (Madrid: Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2005); La poesía gauchesca de Hidalgo a Hernandez (Xalapa, Veracruz, México: Centro de Investigaciones Lingüistico-Literarias. Universidad Veracruzana, 1986); among a large corpus of refereed articles and book charpters in the areas of my research, the most recent publications are: “Lo femenino delirante: La mujer desnuda de Armonía Somers”. Romance Quarterly 58. 1 (2011): 27-53; “La nueva vanguardia, tecnología y Árbol veloZ de Luis Bravo”. Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 14(2011): 349-360; “La década del 70 en el Cono Sur: discursos nostálgicos que recuerdan la revolución y escriben la historia”. Romance Quarterly 57. 1 (2010): 43-62; “The Twentieth Century as Ruin: Tango and Historical Memory.” Telling Ruins in Latin America. Eds. Vicky Unruh and Michael Lazzara. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 95-106.
Selected awards and recognitions: J. William Fulbright Research Award (2011-2012); Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2010);
Elected by the executive committee of the Division on 20th-Century Latin American
Literature to serve as the division’s representative in the MLA Delegate Assembly (2009-
2012); La Estrella del Año 2008 in Education Award, the Learning Generation Initiative,
Indiana (2008); Elected Chair of the Executive Committee of the Division on Twentieth-
Century Latin American Literature, the Modern Language Association (2006); 2006
Nevada Humanities Scholar, The Western Folk Life Center and The Great Basin
College, Elko, Nevada (2006); The Kaneb Award in the College of Arts and Letters for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, University of Notre Dame (1999; 2005); Elected Member of the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association of the Division on Twentieth Century Latin American Literature (2003-2007); The Latin American Studies Association Program Chair for the 24th International Congress (2002-2003).
265 Decio Faculty Hall
574-631-7268
email: molivera@nd.edu
