Vitae
Name : Ellen McCracken
Education:
Ph.D. Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego
B.A. Spanish, University of Santa Clara
Dissertation:
"The Contemporary Latin American Novel and the Mass Media: Vicente Leñero and Julio Cortázar," Director: Professor Joseph Sommers
Employment:
1992-present, Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Program in Comparative Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara
1977-1992, Assistant and Associate Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Publications:
Books:
Paratexts and Performance in the Novels of Junot Díaz and Sandra Cisneros. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
The Life and Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez: A New Mexico Renaissance Man. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009
New Latina Narrative: The Feminine Space of Postmodern Ethnicity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999
Decoding Women's Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms. London: Macmillan and New York: St. Martin's, 1993
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-22381-7_7
Editions and Edited Volumes:
Rewriting the Chicano Movement: New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era. Co-edited with Mario T. García. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2021 www.youtube.com/watch?v=T41G3aumIM0&t=1s
The Serial Podcast and Storytelling in the Digital Age. New York: Routledge, 2017
Guitars and Adobes and the Uncollected Stories of Fray Angélico Chávez. Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2009
Fray Angélico Chávez: Poet, Priest, and Artist. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000
Enhanced iBooks for iPad:
Survival: Inesita and the Dirty War in Argentina. iBooks, 2017 itunes.apple.com/us/book/survival/id1279083180?mt=11
May Days in Spain. iBooks, 2012 itunes.apple.com/us/book/may-days-in-spain/id544017241?mt=11
Articles:
"An Insider's Story of the Chicano Movement: Roque García of Santa Fe." In Rewriting the Chicano Movement: New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era. Ed. Mario T. García and Ellen McCracken. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2021, 148-169.
"Reading Gender Trouble in Digitally Streamed Television: Strategies of Rhetorical Excess in Jane the Virgin and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." In They Have it Good, or Do They? Women's Agency in Contemporary Visual and Material Cultures. Ed. Elodie Chazalon. Paris: Michel Houdiard Éditeur, 2019, 102-118.
"Serial as Digital Constellation: Fluid Textuality and Semiotic Otherness in the Podcast Narrative." In Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Narrative Theories Ed. Zara Dinnen and Robyn Warhol. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018, 197-201.
"Truth in the Middle': Trauma and Collective Family Memory in Reyna Grande's The Distance Between Us." In Tradition and Revolution: Reframing Latina/o Identities in Contemporary U.S. Culture. Ed. Carmen M. Méndez-García. Madrid: Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, 2018, 89-97.
"Enticing Students to Read Again." Chronicle of Higher Education, May 31, 2017. www.chronicle.com/article/Enticing-Students-to-Read/240199
"The Serial Commodity: Rhetoric, Recombination, and Indeterminacy in the Digital Age." In The Serial Podcast and Storytelling in the Digital Age. Ed. Ellen McCracken. New York: Routledge, 2017, 54-71.
"Unfinalizability in the Digital Age: Junot Díaz's Living Foototes in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." In Geographies of Identity: Mapping, Crossing, and Transcending Urban and Human Boundaries, Ed. Ester Álvarez López. Madrid: Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, 2016, 163-171.
"Fray Angélico Chávez and the Colonial Southwest: Historiography and Re-materialization, The Americas, 72:4 (Oct. 2015): 529-547.
"Crowdsourcing Latino Literary Study: Participatory Learning and Enhanced E-Books in the Classroom." In Latino/a Literature in the Classroom: 21st Century Approaches to Teaching. Ed. Frederick Luis Aldama. New York: Routledge, 2015, 171-191.
"The Diminishing Hypotext in Enhanced E-Books: Styron, Poe, and Keruoac." International Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis, 20:1 (Spring 2015): 13-28.
"From Chapbooks to Chica Lit: U.S. Latina Writers and the New Literary Identity." In International Perspectives on Chicana/o Studies "This World Is My Place." Ed. Catherine Leen and Niamh Thornton. New York: Routledge, 2014, 11-23
“Performance and Linguistic Spectacle in Sandra Cisneros’ Caramelo and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” In Landscapes of Writing in Chicano Literature. Ed. Imelda Martín-Junquera. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 33-46.
“Expanding Genette’s Epitext/Peritext Model for Transitional Electronic Literature: Centrifugal and Centripetal Vectors on Kindles and iPads,” Narrative, 21:1 (Jan. 2013), 105-124
“The Postmodern Continuum of Canon and Kitsch: Narrative and Semiotic Strategies of Chicana High Culture and Chica Lit.” In Multicultural and Postcolonial Narratives and Narrative Theory. Ed. Frederick Luis Aldama. Austin: U of Texas P, 2011, 165-181
“Proto-hypertextuality in Late Modernist Mexican Culture: From Avant-garde Novel to Meta-telenovela”, Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis, 15:2, (Fall 2010), 203-212
“Latino Literature Should Be an Essential Part of the Canon” Chronicle of Higher Education June 20, 2010, http://chronicle.com/article/Latino-Literature-Should-Be-an/65963/
“Latino Literature, Language, and Culture in the Classroom,” Teachers College Record, August 03, 2010, http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 16095, Date Accessed: 8/5/2010
“Voice and Vision in Chicana Religious Practice: The Literary Re-elaborations of Mary Helen Ponce, Denise Chávez, and Sandra Cisneros.” In Mexican American Religions: Spirituality, Activism, and Culture. Ed. Gastón Espinosa and Mario T. García. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008, 242-260.
“Configurations of Lo Mexicano in the Poetry of Sandra Cisneros and Pat Mora.” In Cien Años de Lealtad: En Honor a Luis Leal/ One Hundred Years of Loyalty: In Honor of Luis Leal. Ed. Sara Poot Herrera, et. al. University of California, Santa Barbara/UC Mexicanistas/Universidad Autonoma de Mexico: Mexico, 2007. Vol. 2, 1347-1364.
“Meditations, Sermons, and Plays: The Early Religious Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez.” In Recovering Hispanic Religious Thought and Practice of the United States. Ed. Nicolás Kanellos. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007, Chapter Ten, 165-177.
“Semiosis and the Political Sub-Conscious in the Argentine Telenovela,” Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis, 11:1 (Spring 2006), 81-92.
“Semiotics, Hybridity, and Identity: Ethnic Subjectivity in the Early Work of Fray Angélico Chávez,” Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis, 10:1 (Spring 2005), 1-16.
“Globalización y ética: La teología de la liberación en las novelas de Graciela Limón y Demetria Martínez,” Revista Iberoamericana, LXXI: 212 (July-Sept. 2005), 815-831.
“Sandra Cisneros.” In Latino and Latina Writers. Ed. Alan West-Durán, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004, 229-249.
“Postmodern Ethnicity in Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo: Hybridity, Spectacle, and Memory in the Nomadic Text,” Journal of American Studies of Turkey, No. 12 (Fall 2003), 3-12.
“Social Justice, Spirituality, and Chicana Writing: An Interview with Demetria Martínez,” Journal of American Studies of Turkey, No. 12 (Fall 2003), 59-74.
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/996103
“Hybridity and Supra-Ethnicity in Plastic and Filmic Representation: Frida Kahlo’s Art and Julie Taymor’s Frida,” Interdisciplinary Journal for German Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis, 8:2 (Fall 2003), 243-259.
“La comida literal y metafórica en la la nueva narrativa latina estadounidense.” In En gustos se comen géneros. Ed. Sara Poot-Herrera. Mérida, Yucatán: Instituto de Cultura de Yucatán, 2003, 401-422.
“The Postmodern Self of Julia Alvarez’s Yo!: Identity, Memory, and Community,” in The Literary Legacy of New Immigrants in the United States, ed. Laura Alonso Gallo and Antonia Domínguez Miguela (Huelva, Spain: Universidad de Huelva).
"Hybridity and Postmodernity in the Argentine Meta-Comic: The Bridge Texts of Julio Cortázar and Ricardo Piglia," in Latin American Literature and Mass Media, ed. Debra A. Castillo and Edmundo Paz-Soldán (New York: Garland Publishing, 2001), 139-151
"Hybridity and the Space of the Border in the Writing of Norma Elia Cantú, Studies in Twentieth Century Literature 25:1 (Winter 2001), 261-280newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1502&context=sttcl
“’Cathedrals of the Desert’ and ‘Sermons in Stone’: Fray Angélico Chávez’s Contributions to Hispano Church Architecture in New Mexico,” Catholic Southwest 12 (2001), 75-105
“Reterritorialized Spirituality: Material Religious Culture in the Border Space of San Fernando Cathedral,” Arizona Journal of Cultural Studies, 4 (2000), 193-210
"Iconicity and Narrative in the Work of Fray Angélico Chávez: Toward the Harmonious Imagetext," in Fray Angélico Chávez: Poet, Priest, Artist, ed. Ellen McCracken (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000), 53-90
"Graciela Limón," Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 209. Ed. Francisco A. Lomelí and Carl R. Shirley (Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1999), 127-132
"Norma Elia Cantú," Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 209. Ed. Francisco A. Lomelí and Carl R. Shirley (Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1999), 34-39
“A Dalí-Chávez Duet’: Visual and Verbal Semiosis in The Virgin of Port Lligat,” in Interdigitations: Essays for Irmengard Rauch, ed. Gerald F. Carr, Wayne Harbert and Lihua Zhang (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), 681-689
"Subculture, Parody, and the Carnivalesque: A Bakhtinian Reading of Mary Helen Ponce's The Wedding," Melus 23:1 (1998), 117-131
"Residual Signification in Re-Accented Texts: Macarena, Madonna, and La Conquistadora," in Semiotics 1996, ed. C.W. Spinks (New York: Peter Lang, 1997), 62-68.
"Toward a Comparative Text Grammar of Visual and Verbal Semiosis: Material Religious Culture and Chicana Fiction," Semiotics Around the World: Synthesis in Diversity, ed. Irmengard Rauch and Gerald F. Carr. (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), 717-720
"Contemporary Chicano Narrative and Public Religious Display: Recuperating the Sacred in the Barrio Street and the Literary Text," in Cultures de la Rue: Les barrios d'Amérique du Nord, ed. Geneviève Fabre and Catherine Lejeune. Paris: Cahiers Charles V, Nov. 1996, 163-177www.persee.fr/doc/cchav_0184-1025_1996_num_20_1_1149
"Rupture, Occlusion and Repression: The Political Unconscious of the New Fiction of Julia Alvarez and Ana Castillo," in Confrontations et Métissages: Actes du Vième Congrés Européen sur les Cultures d'Amérique Latine aux États-Unis, Elyette Benjamin-Labarthe, et. al., eds. Bordeaux: Maison des Pays Ibériques, 1995, 319-328
"Metaplagiarism and the Critic's Role as Detective: Ricardo Piglia's Reinvention of Roberto Arlt," PMLA (1991), 1071-1082.
"Latina Narrative and the Politics of Signification: Articulation, Antagonism, and Populist Rupture," Crítica, 2:2 (1990) 202-207.
"Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street: Community-Oriented Introspection and the Demystification of Patriarchal Violence," in Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings, ed. Asunción Horno-Delgado, et. al. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989), pp. 62-71.
"Manuel Puig's Heartbreak Tango: Women and Mass Culture," Latin American Literary Review, 9 (1981), 27-35.
"Critical Approaches to Women's Mass Culture: The Case of Advertising," Media Development, 31 (1984), 11-14.
"Vargas Llosa's La tía Julia y el escribidor: The New Novel and the Mass Media," Ideologies and Literature, 3 (1980), 54-69.
"Vicente Leñero's Critical Contribution to the Boom: From Telenovela to Novela-testimonio, in Requiem for the Boom--Premature?, ed. Rose S. Minc (Montclair, New Jersey: Montclair State College, 1980), pp. 175-185.
"Libro de Manuel and Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales: Mass Culture, Art, and Politics," in Literature and Popular Culture in the Hispanic World, ed. Rose S. Minc (Gaithersberg, Maryland: Hispamerica, 1982), pp. 69-77.
"Demystifying Cosmopolitan: Five Critical Methods," Journal of Popular Culture, 16 (1982), 30-42.
Essays:
"'Tango': A Young Franciscan Poet's 1920s Fiestas." Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, Sept. 5, 2014.
“Nota: La Rosa Unica de Fray Angélico Chávez,” Ventana Abierta 32 (Primavera, 2012), 86.
“Statue Recalls Labor of Fray Chávez.” Santa Fe New Mexican, July 19, 2011, A-10
“Visiting Professors Keep University Vibrant,” Santa Barbara News Press, May 15, 2001, G-5
"Helen Gurley Brown and Contemporary Women's Magazines," Book of Days, (Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1987).
"Gender-Segregated Mass Culture: Limitations and Usefulness of Traditional Media Criticism," Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 5 (1986), 241-244.
"In Search of the Female Consumer: Latin American Women's Magazines and the Transnational Model," Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 2 (1983), 226-233.
"The Documentary Novel and the Crisis of the Mexican Press," New Scholar, 8 (1983), 565-570
"Toward an Interdisciplinary Semiotics: Michele Mattelart's La cultura de la opresión femenina," Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 1 (1982), pp. 237-245.
"The Documentary Novel and the Crisis of the Mexican Press," New Scholar, 8 (1983), 565-570.
Reviews:
Jordan, P.R. The Author in the Office: Narrative Writing in Twentieth-Century Argentina and Uruguay (Woodbridge, Sussex: Tamesis, 2006), Bulletin of Latin American Research, 28:4 (October 2009), 585-587.
De Maria, Laura, Argentina(s): Ricardo Piglia dialoga con la generación del ’37 en la discontinuidad (Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1999), Hispanic Review, 70:2 (Spring, 2002), 298-300
Jorgensen, Beth E., The Writing of Elena Poniatowska: Engaging Dialogues (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), Latin American Literary Review, 46 (1995), 99-101
Gustavo Perez Firmat, ed. Do the Americas Have a Common Literature? (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), Inter-American Review of Bibliography, 41:1 (1991), 127-128.
Elena Poniatowska, Dear Diego (New York: Pantheon, 1986), Santa Barbara News Press, Apr. 22, 1988.
Maria Luisa Rodríguez Lee, Juegos sicológicos en la narrativa de Vargas Llosa, (Miami: Ediciones Universal, 1984), Hispania, 68 (1985), pp. 528-529.
Jorge Huerta, Chicano Theatre: Themes and Forms (Ypsilanti, Michigan: Bilingual Press, 1982), Hispania, 66 (1983), 645; Spanish version in La Opinion, Los Angeles, Apr. 24, 1983, p. 10.
David Viñas, Cuerpo a cuerpo (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1979), Hispamérica, 9 (1980), 120-122.
Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt (comp.), Salt of the Earth (New York: Feminist Press, 1978), Journal of Ethnic Studies, 8 (1980), 116-120.
El teatro de la Esperanza's Guadalupe, Educational Theatre Journal, 27 (1975), 554-555.
Awards:
James Phelan Prize for Best Contributions to Narrative, March 29, 2014 for cluster of articles: "Paratext and Digital Narrative"; McCracken, "“Expanding Genette’s Epitext/Peritext Model for Transitional Electronic Literature: Centrifugal and Centripetal Vectors on Kindles and iPads,” Narrative, 21:1 (Jan. 2013), 105-124
Southwest Book Award, Border Regional Library Association, Feb. 26, 2011 for The Life and Writing of Fray Angelico Chávez: A New Mexico Renaissance Man
National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowships, 1981-82, 2003-04
Faculty Research Awards, Academic Senate, UC Santa Barbara, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2015-16
Chicano Studies Institute Faculty Research Grant, 2009
Regents Humanities Faculty Fellowship, 1998
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UC Santa Barbara, Research Grant, 1993-94; Release Time Grant, 2000
UC MEXUS Research Grant, 1996-97; Small Grants, 1997 and 2006
Papers Presented:
"Spectacles of the Ethnic Self: Performativity, Aesthetics, and Identity in U.S. Latina Literature," International Conference on Performance in the Americas from 1950 to Today," Université de La Rochelle, France, November 2021 (online)
The Multi-Genre Memoir and Transborder Identity: Francisco Cantú's The Line Becomes a River," Congrés de l'Association Française d'Etudes Américaines, Université de Lille, France, May 2021 (online)
"A Semiotics of Distraction: Compositional Seriality in Streamed Television on Tablets," Thirty-fifth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley January, 2020
"The Literature of Witness and Expiation: Complexity and Conscience in The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú," First International Conference for Dialogue with the Hispanic Cultures of North America, "Muros," Universitas Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain, May 2019.
"New Regimes of Screen Viewing: Serialized Televisual Streaming on the iPad," Congrés de l'Association Française d'Etudes Américaines, Université de Nantes, France, May 2019.
"Transborder Subjects and Hemispheric Identity: The New America in Luis Alberto Urrea's Into the Beautiful North," XI Congreso Internacional sobre Literatura Chicana y Estudios Latinos, University of Salamanca, Spain, May 2018
"Multitasking and Overflowing Detail in Streamed Television: The Marvelous Mrs. Meisel as Complex TV," Congrès de L'Association Française d'Études Américaines, Nice, France, May 2018.
"An Insider's Story of the Chicano Movement: Roque García of Santa Fe," Sal Castro Memorial Conference on the Emerging Historiography of the Chicano Movement, University of California, Santa Barbara, February 2018
"Binge-Viewing, Hyper-Consumption and Baroque Textual Accumulation in Jane the Virgin," 50th Congrès de L'Association Française d'Études Américaines, Strasbourg, France, June 2017.
"Latino Documentaries and Transformative Media: The Case of Roxanne Frias' Latino: The Changing Face of America," 50th Congrès de L'Association Française d'Études Américaines, Strasbourg, France, June 2017.
"The Border in Chicano Literature from Daniel Venegas to the Post-Movement Era," Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany, June 2017.
"Transmedial Paths Through Joyce and Eliot," Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, January 2017.
"From the Trujillato to Facebook: Junot Díaz and Human Rights in the Digital Age," Fourth Biennial Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies, Santa Barbara, October 2016.
"Ethnic Excess in the Text/Paratext Continuum of Sandra Cisneros," International Conference on Narrative, University of Amsterdam, June 2016.
"The Fashion System: Homologous Structures of Text and Paratext," Thirty-first Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 2016.
"The Key Role of Franciscan Archives inThe Life and Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez: A New Mexico Renaissance Man," A Becoming Place Dedication Symposium, Franciscan Archives, Albuquerque, NM, March 2016.
"Recombinatory Narrative in the Digital Age," Modern Language Association, Austin, TX, January 2016
"Latino/a Popular Religious Traditions in the U.S.," Religious Pluralism Institute, UC Santa Barbara, July 2015
"Beyond Print: Junot Díaz's Autographic Footnotes to the Second Degree," International Conference on Narrative, Chicago, March 2015.
"Centrifugal Navigation: Paratextuality to the Second Degree," Thirtieth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California," Berkeley, January 2015.
"Books on Small Screens: Non-Authorial Rhetorical Strategies of the e-Reader Screen," Modern Language Association Convention, Vancouver, BC, January, 2015.
"Fray Angélico Chávez and the Colonial Southwest: Historiography and Re-materialization," Antoine Tibesar Lecture, American Academy of Franciscan History, Santa Barbara, October 2014.
"Unfinalizability in the Digital Age: Junot Díaz's Living Footnotes in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," Ninth International Conference on Chicano Literature and Latino Studies, Oviedo, Spain, May 2014.
"Paratexts as Intratexts: New Systems of Paratextuality in Enhanced E-Books," Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California," UC Berkeley, January 2014
"Truth Comes for the Archbishop: The Construction of Hispano Ethnicity in Fray Angélico Chávez's Early Historical Fiction," Western History Association, Tucson, October 2013
"Trans-Textuality in Enhanced E-Books: Styron, Poe, and Kerouac," Eleventh International Conference, Spanish Association for American Studies, University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, March, 2013
"Multimedia Adaptation in Enhnaced E-Books: What Is the Text?" Modern Language Association Convention, Boston, January 2013
"The New Road to On the Road: Intratextuality in the Enhanced E-Book," Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January 2013.
"Renegotiating the Double Law of Hospitality in Chicano Border Narratives,” Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, San Diego, August, 2012
“Beyond Print: Enhanced Electronic Books and Chicano/Latino Writers,” Eighth International Conference on Chicano Literature, Toledo, Spain, May 2012
“Recovering Franciscan History in the Southwest: The Life and Work of Fray Angélico Chávez,” California Mission Studies Association Conference, San Rafael, Februrary 2012
“Advertising and Long-Form Fiction on Portable E-Readers: The Semiotics of Meaning Construction,” Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January 2012
“Estrangement, Role Reversal, and Intertextuality in Chicano Border Narrative: Luis Alberto Urrea’s Into the Beautiful North, Pacific Coast Council of Latin American Studies Annual Conference, Los Angeles, October 2011.
“Diasporic Recovery and the Continuum of Religion and Ethnicity in Twentieth Century Mexican-American Literature,” Catholic Diasporas: The Irish and Mexicans in America Conference, University of Notre Dame, April, 2011
“Enhanced E-books: Semiotic Approaches to New Modes of Reading Literature on Portable Electronic Devices,” Twenty-sixth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley January 2011
“Vooks and the Hemispheric South: Enhanced E-books and U.S. Latino Literature,” Reimagining the Hemispheric South Conference, UC Santa Barbara, January 2011
"Peritexts and Epitexts in Transitional Electronic Literature: Readers and Paratextual Engagement on Kindles and iPads,” Modern Language Association, Los Angeles, January 2011
“The Mutable Text: Paratextuality and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Latino Literature/La Literatura Latina III: A Bilingual Conference, UC Santa Cruz, November 2010
“Popular Religiosity and History in Chicana Fiction: Sandra Cisneros and Demetria Martínez,” Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, Santa Clara University, August 2010
“Performance and Linguistic Spectacle in Sandra Cisneros’ Caramelo and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Seventh International Conference on Chicano Literature, Universidad de León, León, Spain, May 2010
“Historiographic Metafiction in Chicano/Latino Writing,” Chicano Literature Conference, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland, May 2010
“In Search of Fray Angélico Chávez: Tracing the Life and Work of a New Mexico Renaissance Man,” My Penitente Land: 100th Birthday of Fray Angélico Chávez Conference,” Santa Fe, March 2010
“The Instability of the Performative Signifier,” Twenty-fifth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley January 2010
“Fray Angélico Chávez’s Guitars and Adobes and the Uncollected Stories,” Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, October, 2009
“Polysemy and the Struggle for Interpretive Closure: Ritual Devotions in Santa Fe, New Mexico” CEHILA USA 2009 Conference (Comisión para el Estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia en American Latina y el Caribe), University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, May 2009
“From Chapbooks to Chica Lit: Latina Writers and the New Literary Identity,” Invited lecture, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, March, 2009
“Linguistic, Cultural, and Political Bigamy: Ariel Dorfman’s Hemispheric Memoir Heading South, Looking North,” Academic Autobiography, Intellectual History, and Cultural Memory in the 20th Century:: An Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, March 2009
“The Semiotics of Absence: Alternative Signifiers of the City in Crisis,” Twenty-fourth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January 2009
“The Footnote in Latino Historiographic Metafiction: Rhetorical Strategies of Non-Paratextuality in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” Twenty-third Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley January 2008
“Canon and Kitsch: Narrative and Semiotic Strategies of Chicana High Culture and Chica Lit,” Project Narrative Symposium on Multicultural Narrative and Narrative Theory, Ohio State University, October, 2007
“The Presence of Visual Absence: The Semiotic Reconfiguration of the Vicarious City in Rojo amanecer,” Thirteenth Conference on Mexican Literature, UC Irvine, April 2007
“Configurations of lo mexicano in the Poetry of Sandra Cisneros and Pat Mora,” Twelfth Conference on Mexican Literature, UC Irvine, April 2006
“Exilic Displacement and Return: Battles of Ethnic Signification in La Conquistadora,” Relocations and Translated Identities: Migration, Exile, and Diaspora in the Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Worlds Conference, University of New Mexico, February 2006
“Re-Imaged Religiosity in the Verbal and Visual Arts: Literature, Cinema, and Painting,” Twenty-first Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley January 2006
“Reclaiming Hispano Ethnicity: Fray Angélico Chávez and the Santa Fe Writers Group,” Western Literature Association, Los Angeles, October 2005
“Meditations, Sermons, and Plays: The Early Religious Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez” Recovering Hispanic Religious Thought and Practice in the United States Conference, Univ. of Houston, May 2005
“Semiosis and the Political Sub-Conscious in the Argentine Telenovela,” Twentieth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 2005
“Ethnic Subjectivity in the Early Fiction of Fray Angélico Chávez,” Eighth Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Conference, Albuquerque, November 2004
“Ethnicity, Hybridity, and Franciscanism: The Life and Work of Fray Angélico Chávez, 20th Century Humanist,” Invited lecture, American Academy of Franciscan History, Berkeley, March 2004
“Semiotics, Hybridity, and Identity,” Nineteenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 2004
“Cinematic and Literary Spectacles of Ethnicity: Frida Kahlo and Sandra Cisneros,” Ninth Conference on Criticism and Art in Mexico, UC Irvine, May 2003
“Hybridity and Supra-Ethnicity in Plastic and Filmic Representation: Frida Kahlo’s Art and Julie Taymor’s Frida,” Eighteenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 2003
“From Chapbooks to Six-Figure Advances: Latina Writers and the New Literary Identity,” Keynote Address, Latina Letters Conference, San Antonio, July, 2002
“Argentina Is Burning: Ostensive Communication and Semiotic Struggle in the Current Socio-Economic Crisis,” Seventeenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 2002
“Re-Imaged Religiosity in the Verbal and Visual Arts: Literature, Cinema, and Painting,” Eighth Conference on Criticism and Art in Mexico, UC Irvine, May 2002
“Reconfigured Death and Contemporary Social Justice: Vicente Leñero’s Jesucristo Gómez,” Sixth Colloquium on Mexican Literature: Transfiguraciones de la Muerte, University of California, Santa Barbara, November, 2001
“Fray Angélico Chávez: Tradition and Renewal in the Re-visioning of 20th Century Franciscanism in New Mexico,” American Academy of Franciscan History International Conference, Oakland, November, 2000
“Reasserting Church History: Fray Angélico Chávez’s Contribution to Church Architecture in New Mexico,” American Society of Church History/ American Catholic Historical Association Joint Meeting, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 2000
“Graciela Limón: Art and Social Justice,” Invited lecture, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, April 16, 1999
“Plata quemada as Cinematic Pre-Text: Narrative Desire and the Semiotic Other,” Thirteenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 1999
"Hybridity and Postmodernity in the Argentine Meta-Comic: The Bridge Texts of Julio Cortázar and Ricardo Piglia," Modern Language Association Convention, San Francisco, December 1999
“Popular Religiosity in U.S. Latino Literature,” Invited lecture, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, November 1998
“Re-Imaged Religiosity in the Painting of María Izquierdo,” Twelfth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January 1998
"Latin American Liberation Theology and U.S. Latina Fiction: Demetria Martínez and Graciela Limón," Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast Councils of Latin American Studies Joint Meeting, San Diego, February 1997
"Vestimentary Semiotics and Visual Narration: Transformations of La Conquistadora in Santa Fe, New Mexico," Eleventh Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, Berkeley, January, 1997
"Fray Angélico Chávez: Public Intellectual," Invited lecture, Dedication of the Fray Angélico Chávez History Library and Photographic Archives, Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe, New Mexico, November, 1996
"Iconicity and Narrative in the Work of Fray Angélico Chávez: From the Retablo Tales to Peña Blanca," Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast Councils of Latin American Studies Joint Conference, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March, 1996
"Voice and Vision in Chicana Religious Practice: The Literary Re-elaborations of Mary Helen Ponce, Denise Chávez, and Sandra Cisneros," New Directions in Chicano Religion Conference, UC Santa Barbara, February, 1996
"A Dalí-Chávez Duet": Visual and Verbal Semiosis in The Virgin of Port Lligat," Tenth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January, 1996
"The Attenuated Borders of Visual and Verbal Semiosis: Hybrid Religious Culture and Chicana Fiction," Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UC Santa Barbara, October, 1995
"Contemporary Chicano Narrative and Public Religious Display: Recuperating the Sacred in the Barrio Street and the Literary Text," International Conference on "The Street in North American Barrios and Other Ethnic Neighborhoods," Universities of Paris VII and Paris III, March, 1995
"Lo Latinoamericano in U.S. Latina Fiction: In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez," Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountain Councils of Latin American Studies Joint Meeting, Las Vegas, March, 1995
"Rupture, Occlusion, and Repression: The Political Unconscious of the New Fiction of Julia Alvarez and Ana Castillo," Sixth European Conference on Latino Cultures in the United States, Bordeaux, July, 1994
"Towards a Comparative Text Grammar of Visual and Verbal Semiosis: Ex votos, Retablitos, and Chicana Fiction," Fifth Congress of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, UC Berkeley, June, 1994
"Re-Spatializing 'La Isla Bonita': Alternatives to Tropicalization in New Latina Narrative," International Conference on Narrative Literature, Vancouver, May, 1993
"Santos, Retablos, Ex-Votos: The Visual Intertexts of Sandra Cisneros' 'Little Miracles, Kept Promises,'" Sergio Pitol Conference, UC Santa Barbara, April, 1993
"Colors by Benetton: Selling the U.S. Latina Writer," Ninth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January, 1994
"Madonna vs. Guadalupe: Religious Icons, Sexual Transgression, and the Politics of Signification," Eighth Meeting of the Semiotic Circle of California, UC Berkeley, January, 1993
"Borderline Texts: History, Postmodernity, and the Autobiographical Simulacrum in New Latina Narrative," Modern Language Association Convention, New York City, December, 1992
"Subculture, Parody, Carnival: A Bakhtinian Reading of Mary Helen Ponce's The Wedding," American Studies Association Convention, Costa Mesa, November, 1992
"Dominicanas on the Island and in the U.S.: The Gendered Construction of Ethnicity in Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Los Angeles, September, 1992
"Language, Empowerment and Narrative Violence in Carmen de Monteflores' Cantando Bajito/Singing Softly, XIII Symposium on Spanish and Portuguese Bilingualism, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, April, 1992
"Ethnicity, Gender, and the Postmodern Text: Strategies of Resistance in Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories," Modern Language Association Convention, San Francisco, December, 1991
"Transgressive Narrative Tactics and Subcultural Expression," New England Council of Latin American Studies Annual Meeting, October, 1991
"Between History and Autobiography: New Chicana/Latina Narrative," Latin American Studies Association Convention, April, 1991
"The Continuum of Latina Narrative and the Politics of Signification," Conference on "Chicano Cultural Studies: New Critical Directions," UC Santa Barbara, May, 1990
"Women's and Men's Testimonial Discourse in Central America," Latin American Studies Association National Meeting, Boston, October, 1986
"From Media Theory to Integrative Novel: Ariel Dorfman's La última canción de Manuel Sendero," Latin American Studies Association National Meeting, Albuquerque, April, 1985
"Women and Revolution in Latin America: Ariel Dorfman's Viudas and Antonio Skármeta's La insurrección," Symposium on Latin American Women Writers, San Diego State University, March, 1985
"Forms of Address: Appellation and Ideology in Women's Magazines," University of Minnesota, October, 1984.
"Deus lhe pague and Dios se lo pague: From Social Protest Play to Political Soap Opera," Northeast Modern Language Association, April, 1983.
"Advertising in Women's Magazines: Covert and Overt Techniques of Persuasion," American Association of University Women, Goleta Valley Branch, November, 1982.
"Seeing Sex-role Stereotypes: Semiotics as a Tool for Qualitative Analysis," International Association for Mass Communication Research Thirteenth General Assembly and Scientific Meeting, Paris, September, 1982.
"From Mademoiselle to Ms.: Decoding Women's Magazines," University of California, Santa Barbara, February, 1982.
"Spanish-Language Women's Magazines in the U.S.: Chicana Readers and the Transformation of the Mass Cultural Message," Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies Annual Meeting, Ashland, Oregon, October, 1981.
"Images of Assimilation and Integration: Latin American Women's Magazines and the Hispanic-American Reader," Conference on Popular Culture in Latin America, El Paso, March, 1981.
"Literature and Communications Theory," George Mason University, February, 1981.
"The Cover as Sign: Six Latin American Women's Magazines," Latin American Studies Association National Meeting, Bloomington, Indiana, October, 1980.
"Working Woman and Working Mother: New Images and Old Ideas in Women's Magazines," Tenth Annual Meeting of the Popular Culture Association, Detroit, April, 1980.
"The Mass Media and the Contemporary Novel," Five-College Symposium on Contemporary Latin American Culture, Amherst College, April, 1978.
Courses:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Span. 594 Theory and Practice of Enhanced E-Books
INT 94TS The Serial Podcast
Comp. Lit. 153 Border Narrative
INT 184EM Honors Seminar: Multimedia Enhanced E-Books
INT 84EM Honors Seminar: Electronic Textuality
Spanish 174 Hispanic Novel and Cinema
Spanish 120A Contemporary Spanish-American Fiction
Spanish 120B Contemporary Mexican Fiction
Spanish 139 U.S. Latino Literature
Spanish 179 The Chicano Novel
Spanish 213 Theory of Literary Criticism
Spanish 594 Literary Theory and Text
Spanish 246 U.S. Latino Literature
Spanish 297 Contemporary Narrative of the Americas
Span 594EM Electronic Textuality
Comp. Lit. 150 Contemporary Literary Theory
English 124 Readings in the Modern Short Story
English 134 New Latina Narrative (U.S.)
English 187 Women and the Literary Canon
English 189 Contemporary Literature
English 234 Contemporary Narrative of the Americas
Latin American and Iberian Studies 100/200 Proseminar
Latin American and Iberian Studies 102 Latin American Culture
Latin American and Iberian Studies 193TT Latino Popular Religiosity
INT 201GT Interdisciplinary seminar: History, Language and Culture in the U.S. Latino Experience
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Com Lit 101E Contemporary Mass Culture: Literary and Ideological Structures
Com Lit 104/
Journ Stud 297 Literature and the Mass Media
Com Lit 105 Short Story: North and South America
Com Lit l09 Contemporary Literature of the Americas: Chicano, Puerto Rican, and
Latin American Culture
Com Lit 201 Modern European Literature: Alienation and Engagement
Com Lit 302/
Wom. Stu 391 Women and Mass Culture
Com Lit 392/
Wom. Stu 392 Women's Magazines
Com Lit 493 The Contemporary Novel and the Mass Media
Com Lit 497 Seminar: Nueva novela/nouveau roman
Com Lit 531 Seminar: Cross Cultural Theory and Text
Com Lit 637 Seminar: Cultural Studies
University Service:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Chair, Academic Planning Committee, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2012-present
Chair, Executive Committee, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2009-11
Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, 2006-2008
Program Director, Latin American and Iberian Studies, 1993-95, 2002-03
Member, Latin American and Iberian Studies Advisory Committee, 1992-2004
College of Letters and Science Executive Committee, 1995
Advisory Committee, Comparative Literature Program, 1995-2004
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Steering Committee, 1996-1999
Education Abroad Program Selection Interview Committee, 1996
Selection Committee, Graduate Humanities Research Fellowships, 1997, 2011, 2012
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Department of Comparative Literature:
Member, Personnel Committee 1977-81; 1983-1985; 1988-1992; Chair, 1990-91.
Member, Undergraduate Studies Committee 1977-81; 1983-84
Member, Graduate Studies Committee 1984-85
Honors Coordinator 1978-80
Member, Long Range Planning Committee 1980-81
Member, Search Committees 1978-79; 1986-87
Women's Studies Program:
Member, Personnel Committee, 1991-92
Member, Policy Board, 1991-92
University:
Latin American Studies Committee 1978-81; 1983-1992
Faculty of Humanities and Fine Arts Personnel Committee
1986-1987
Five-College:
Five-College Latin American Studies Committee 1977-80;
1983-1989
Co-Chair, Five College Latin American Faculty Seminar
1977-80, 1989
Public Service:
Radio interview, CSUCI Presents, Cal State Channel Islands, March 24, 2021, https://soundcloud.com/user-873816943/csuci-presents032421
Podcast, "Rewriting the Chicano Movement:New Histories of Mexican American Activism in the Civil Rights Era," University of Arizona Press, March 8, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5RrebnNJHg
Radio Interview, "Fray Angélico Chávez,” Catholic Radio, Archdiocese of Santa Fe, April, 2010
Television interview, "Imprint," TV Ontario, Toronto, November, 1992 (on Decoding Women's Magazines)
Television interview, “22-Alive,” WWLP Springfield, MA, Nov. 21, 1983, (on women’s magazines)
Radio interview, CKWW, Windsor, Ontario, January, 1993 (on Decoding Women's Magazines)
Radio interview, KSTP , St. Paul, Minnesota, October, 1983 (women’s magazines)
Radio interview, WMAS, Springfield MA, Oct. 24, 1983 (women’s magazines)
Radio interview, Massachusetts Public Radio News Service, Worcester MA, Nov. 28, 1983 (women’s magazines)
Consultant, Lynne Palazzi, Magazine Week, January, 1993 (article on romance magazines)
Consultant, Laura Kavesh, Chicago Tribune, 1983 (sex education in teen magazines)
Consultant, Karla Vallance, Christian Science Monitor (Subliminal synergism in women’s magazines), October, 1982
Guest Lecture, “New Latina Narrative,” Institut d’Anglais Charles V, Université Paris 7, March 1995
Professional Organizations:
Modern Language Association
Semiotic Circle of California
Society for the Study of Narrative Literature
HISPA/USA
Spanish Association for American Studies
Editorial Board, UC Latino Cultures Network