Dr. Mariana Bolivar Rubin

As a Professor of Spanish and Latin American and Latinx Studies, I use two complementary approaches in my teaching. In language courses, I see language learning as more than developing communication skills; I use it as a way for students to explore culture, history, identity, and everyday life in Spanish-speaking communities. In my interdisciplinary courses, I bring together literature, culture, history, and critical perspectives on race, gender, identity, indigeneity, and transnationalism. In both settings, I encourage students to question assumptions, engage with different perspectives, and make connections between language, culture, and society.

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My scholarship is interdisciplinary and grounded in Cultural Studies, with a focus on race, gender, spirituality, citizenship, and cultural identity in Latin American, Afro-Latinx, and Caribbean literature, film, and visual culture. My research examines Afro-Caribbean religions and spiritual practices in Latinx cultural production, alongside broader questions of decolonization, indigeneity, cultural memory, and alternative forms of knowledge. Building on this work, I am currently developing a research project that examines the Mesoamerican ancestral practice of soul retrieval within Indigenous spiritual traditions such as curanderismo, considering it as a cultural and epistemological practice through which individuals negotiate identity, embodiment, cultural memory, belonging, and forms of healing and resistance in the context of chronic illness, trauma, and migratory displacement.

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Book Reviews

“Imagined Multitudes in The Spanish-Language Caribbean Novel” in The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel, Juan E. De Castro and Ignacio López Calvo (eds). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022.

“Framing Multitude: Alternatative Paradigmas of Citizenship in New Venezuelan Cinema.” *Mind’ Eye: A Liberal Arts Journal *(Spring 27). https://mindseye.mcla.edu/2017/07/10/spring-2017-ms-of-citizenship-in-new-venezuelan-cinema-by-mariana-bolivar-rubin/

"Comfort, Kelly. Cien Años De Identidad: Introducción a La Literatura Latinoamericana Del Siglo Xx." Hispania. 102.3 (2019): 423-424. 

"Beauty, Virtue, Power and Success in Venezuela 1850–2015 by Elizabeth G. Nichols." Hispania. 101.2 (2018): 328-329.

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“Paradigmas of Citizenship in Venezuelan Alternative Cinema.” Mind’ Eye: A Liberal Arts Journal (Spring, 2017)

“Imagined Multitudes in The Spanish-Language Caribbean Novel.”The Oxford Handbook ot the Latin American Novel. Oxford Universiy Press. (Ongoing)

Book Project (Anthology Editor and Collaborator)

Inclusive Excellence and the Decolonization of Knowledge in Latin American and Latinx Studies. (In conversation with University of Arizona Press)

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2024 “Decolonizing Knowledge: Reimagining Higher Education,” Guest Lecturer*. *Honors Program Guest Lecture Series. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

2023     “Narrativves of Violance” in “How to Speak About Peace,” Community Panel. Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts 

2022     “Curaderismo and Santería: Alternative Health Care Among Latinx Communities.” MCLA Day of Dialogue, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts 

2022     “Critical Latinx Indigeneities: Otra Metáfora de Decolonización?” Casa de las Américas, V Coloquio Internacional de Estudios sobre Culturas Originarias de América. Havana, Cuba.

2022     “De-colonizar el espacio urbano: Mapas spirituals en la narrativa afro-latina en los Estados Unidos” XXIX Congreso Internacional de Literatura y Estudios Hispánicos, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

2022     “White Masochism: The Psycho-Sexual Dynamics Behind U.S. Political Grammar.” Mind's Eye Works in Progress Lectures*, *Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

2021     “The Indeterminacy of Junot Díaz’ Writings.” Seminar Lecture. Latin American Studies Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.

“Intangible Americans: Spiritual Mappings of the Global City in Contemporary Afro-Latinx Narrative”: 49th NeMLA Conference, Pittsburgh, PA. (Abril 2018)

Invited Scholar. “On Peril and Promise.” Latino Americans: 500 Years of History, PBS/NEH Lecture Series, Berkshires Community College. Pittsfield, MA

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