About Me

After over a decade spent teaching at various universities in Chile and Scotland, I landed in Hong Kong where I work as a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Latin American Studies at The University of Hong Kong. Being in Asia has opened doors to many connections and ideas that I would have missed having been working elsewhere.

Most of my work revolves around literary analysis focusing on Chilean poetry and narratives. Nevertheless, my work as a literary critic is informed by various other disciplines such as cultural studies, history, philosophy, political science and economy. I could recognize the richness of interdisciplinary work during my doctoral studies where I examined the relationship between neoliberalism in Chile and women’s poetic work articulating resistance to it. These findings are currently being turned into my first monograph, preliminarily entitled: Chilean Women Poets under Neoliberalism: Expressing Discontent (1980-2020) which is under review at a prestigious British university press.

Right now, my research is taking me to analyse present times literary works and historical events in Chile—with a special focus on the 2019 revolts and the Constitutional process taking place at the moment. Understanding the current is pivotal when imagining the future, so my next research project will explore depictions of futurities in a selection of Chilean novels. Also, by being in Hong Kong I have found tremendous inspiration to delve into Sino-Latin American cultural relations, and I am starting my first work on this new line of inquiry by focusing on Chilean Pablo Neruda’s visit to China and his friendship with Chinese poet Ai Qing.

I feel very excited about new research avenues and both interacting with and learning from my students. I am currently supervising two postgraduate students, at MPhil and PhD level respectively, whose work is focused on Brazilian literatures and cultures of the 20^th century. This has encouraged me to learn Portuguese as a third language. I also seek to begin a Brazilianist Research Cluster at HKU, so research on Brazil can be expanded and disseminated here. The city’s strategic position in Asia, and in close proximity to Macau, has made it possible to interact with lusophone academics and specialists from Brazil.

If I had endless funds, I would like to do research on Latin American authors on the Tran Siberian Route into China, the writings and graphic novels of Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Chilean woman in the writings of Andrea Jeftanovic, Alejandra Costamagna and Lina Meruane, and literature from Chinese and Japanese descendants in Latin America.