Laura Mercedes Tapia Castillo
First Year Spanish Ph.D. Student
- ltapiaca@nd.edu
Biography
I hold a Bachelor’s and a Master of Arts in Literature from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). I have experience teaching academic writing in Spanish at Universidad de los Andes and I also worked as a cultural manager at Corporación Manos Visibles, where I coordinated reading and writing programs with an emphasis on ethnic and racial equity. These initiatives included Vení Te Leo Brasil, a reading program dedicated to Afro‑Brazilian authors, and Letras de Vanguardia, a creative writing workshop in Colombia for Black participants.
Research Interests
My research explores Afro‑diasporic literature written in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, focusing on hybrid identities, migration, and the ways racism is articulated in contemporary debates.