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Vanesa Miseres

Associate Professor of Spanish

Miseres Vanesa Square
Office
308 Decio Faculty Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone
(574)-631-3868
Email
vmiseres@nd.edu

Website

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Education

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

M.A., Vanderbilt University

B.A., Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina)

Biography

Professor Vanesa Miseres specializes in the cultural and literary landscapes of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Latin America, with her research and teaching exploring diverse topics such as travel writing, war literature, women writers, gender, cultural, and food studies. She is the author of Mujeres en tránsito: viaje, identidad y escritura en Sudamérica (1830–1910), which received the 2018 Alfredo Roggiano Prize for Latin American Literary Criticism from the IILI and an Honorable Mention for the Victoria Urbano Critical Monograph Prize from the Association of Gender & Sexuality Studies. An English translation of this book is currently in preparation.

Her second book, Gender Battles: Latin American Women, War, and Feminism, has garnered significant support from various grants, including a Mendel Fellowship from the Lilly Library, a Global Gateway Faculty Research Award from Notre Dame, and a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. Additionally, Professor Miseres is the co-editor of Food Studies in Latin American Literature. Perspectives on the Gastronarrative.

Currently, Professor Miseres is engaged in two new book projects: a cultural history tracing the evolution of vegetarianism in Latin America since 1900 and a study of the intersections of gender and science—focusing on botany, domestic science, and gynecology. Miseres is also co-editing an anthology of Latin American early feminist debates from 1900–1940.

Since 2023, Miseres, in collaboration with Professor Vania Smith-Oka (Anthropology), has led a project empowering Latinx women who experienced violence during pregnancy and childbirth through art and literature. This initiative, supported by Humanities Without Walls and the University of Notre Dame, is now expanding. The Franco Institute selected a new phase for its inaugural New Research Innovation Collaboratives. Miseres and Smith-Oka have also received additional support from the Notre Dame Arts Initiative. This next phase will include art workshops, an exhibition, and a public humanities book sharing participants' stories.

Miseres currently serves as an Associate Editor for the Latin American Research Review, the academic journal of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).

Affiliated with the Gender Studies Program, Professor Miseres is also a Fellow of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Research Interests

19th and early 20th century Latin American literature, travel literature, gender studies, women writers, food studies, war writing, women and science.

Representative Publications

Books:

Edited Volumes:

Articles:

  • “Elvira Aldao de Díaz, una cronista argentina de la Primera Guerra Mundial.” Historia & Guerra(University of Buenos Aires) 8 (2025): 7–30.https://revistascientificas.filo.uba.ar/index.php/historiayguerra/article/view/16273/14919
  • “Botanical Beings: On Women, Flowers, and Plants in Nineteenth-Century Latin America.” Changings in the Landscape: Humans and Nature in 19th-Century Latin America. Ed. Jennifer French. Vanderbilt University Press, 2025. 112–31.
  • “La rosa muerta de Zoila Aurora Cáceres y el archivo médico feminista del entresiglos.” Amérique Latine Histoire et Mémoire. Les Cahiers ALHIM 47 (2024): https://doi.org/10.4000/11ski
  • “Engendering War Writing in Nineteenth-Century Latin America.” Routledge Companion to Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Ed. Graciela Montaldo and Agnes Lugo Ortiz. Routledge, 2024. 155–72.
  • “Cooking and Feminism Through Latin American Literature.” Food and Foodways 30.3 (2022): 208–227.

Public Scholarship:

Additional Works