
Gabriela á,
Associate Professor of Spanish, Latin American, and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures
Academic History
- Ph.D. - Literature, with a specialization in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, University of California, San Diego
- M.A. - Latin American Literatures and Cultures, University of California, San Diego
- B.A. - Spanish and Latin American Literatures & Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Academic Focus
Professor Bacsán’s research centers on contemporary Latin American literatures and cultures with a focus on the intersections of sexuality, gender, and race. Her publications have examined authenticity in tourism promotion in Cuba, photography and childhood in Venezuelan film, and photography and memory in Chilean literature. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled, “Visualizing Queerness: Photography and Narrative in Latin America.” This timely project studies how photography’s intervention in the representation of intersectional queer subjectivities within literature and film produced since the 1990s sheds light on the complexities and specificities of the political and cultural constructions of social difference in distinct Latin American contexts. Dr. Bacsán’s approach of using photography as an analytic through which to study representations of sex and gender difference is novel and expands on the seminal work of scholars who argue that (in)visibility is central to understanding constructions and experiences of queerness in Latin America.
Awards and Honors
- The Arnold L. Graves and Lois S. Graves Awards in the Humanities. 2022-23.
- Faculty Sabbatical Research Grant. 91. 2020-21.
- The Institute for Citizens & Scholars Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty (Previously known as the Woodrow Wilson Foundation). June–December 2019.
- Faculty Sabbatical Research Grant. 91. 2019-20.
- Mary W. Johnson Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching. 91. 2018-19.