Elizabeth Monasterios is Full Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. Co-editor of the influential Bolivian Studies Journal, she is also a foundational member of JALLA (Jornadas Andinas de Literatura Latinoamericana) and the LASA-Bolivia Section. She has widely taught and lectured at Latin American and US universities, served as Contributing Editor for the Handbook of Latin American Studies (Library of Congress), Section Coordinator to the Literary Cultures of Latin America. A Comparative History (Oxford University Press, 2004), and contributor for A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in Continental Europe and its Empires (Edinburgh University Press, 2008), A Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture (Blackwell Publishing, 2008, 2023), Colección las 15 novelas fundacionales de la literatura boliviana (UMSA, Plural Editores, 2012), and Hacia una Historia Crítica de la Literatura Boliviana (PIEB, 2002). Prof. Monasterios is also a member of the International Doctorate at the Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Dipartimento di Filologia, Letteratura e Linguistica (Italy), the International Post-Graduate Studies at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil, Affiliated Faculty at the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO, Sede Argentina), and the Post-Graduate Program in Latin American Literature at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.
Professor Monasterios’ scholarly research on Bolivian poets Jaime Saenz and Blanca Wiethüchter, Mexican poet José Emilio Pacheco, and Peruvian writer Gamaliel Churata is widely recognized. Her book La vanguardia plebeya del Titikaka. Gamaliel Churata y otras beligerancias estéticas en los Andes (IFEA and Plural Editores, 2015) was honored with the Premio Roggiano de la crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 2016, awarded from the International Institute of Latin American Literature to the best book of Latin American literary criticism published in 2015. Her Dilemas de la poesía latinoamericana de fin de siglo: José Emilio Pacheco y Jaime Saenz (Plural Editores, 2001) is to this day the only monograph entirely dedicated to Saenz’ poetic work.
Monasterios recent scholarly books include a second edition of La vanguardia plebeya del Titikaka (UNA-Puno, 2015), Gamaliel Churata: Interpelaciones al excepcionalismo de los saberes universales desde una concepción ambiciosamente crítica del pensamiento humano (Università degli Studi di Cagliari, UNICA Press, 2020), Urgencias del Latinoamericanismo en tiempos de globalizacion conflictiva (University of North Carolina Press, 2020), Rutas y constelaciones sobre Gamaliel Churata (with Helena Usandizaga and Meritxell Hernando Marsal, Mitologías Hoy, 2020), and Gamaliel Churata. EL escritor, el filósofo, el artista que no conocíamos (with Mauro Mamani Macedo, IILI, 2019).
Research interests include post-humanism and post-anthropocentric theories at the intersection with Andean epistemologies, non-human others, multispecies worlding, gender, and feminist philosophy. Her teaching involves a sense of respect for the materials that are studied and a commitment to produce learning communities. Currently, Professor Monasterios is working on three projects: the preparation of critical and annotated editions of unpublished manuscripts by Gamaliel Churata, the English translation of La vanguardia plebeya del Titikaka, and putting out a volume on contemporary Bolivian literature.
Recent Selected Articles and Book Chapters
“Uncertain Modernities: Amerindian Epistemologies and the Re-Orientation of Culture”. Sara Castro Klaren, ed. Blackwell Companion to Latin American Literature and Culture. Second
Edition. 5 Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2022. 507-523.
“El jardín de Nora (Veinte años después, en tiempos espectrales)”. Rosario Rodríguez Márquez, ed. Revista de Estudios Bolivianos. La Paz: Instituto de Estudios Bolivianos, Plural Editores. La Paz: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, 2022. 128-157.
“El debate andino-amazónico abordado desde el pensamiento vinculante y post-antropocéntrico de Gamaliel Churata”. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 55.3 (2021): 583-605.
“¿No habrá algún lugar en que se pudiese estar como en la propia casa? Saenz, la cuestión del ‘estar’, el encuentro con Heidegger y la proyección de estos asuntos en Kush y Churata”. Bolivian Studies Journal. Vol. 26-27. 2020-2021. 15-40. file:///C:/Users/ELM15/Downloads/No_habria_algun_lugar_en_que_se_pudiese_estar_como.pdf
“Gamaliel Churata: Una concepción ambiciosamente crítica del pensamiento humano. Ensayo Introductorio”. Gamaliel Churata: Interpelaciones al excepcionalismo de los saberes universales desde una concepción ambiciosamente crítica del pensamiento humano. Cagliari, Italy: Università degli Studi di Cagliari, UNICA Press, 2020. 9-20. https://unicapress.unica.it/index.php/unicapress/catalog/book/978-88-3312-029-4
Introducción. Urgencias del Latinoamericanismo en tiempos de globalizacion conflictiva. Tributo a John Beverley. Raleigh, NC.: Editorial A Contracorriente, UNC Press, 2020. 1-28.
Presentación. “Rutas y constelaciones sobre Gamaliel Churata” (with co-authors Meritxell Hernando Marsal and Helena Usandizaga). Rutas y constelaciones sobre Gamaliel Churata.
Mitologías Hoy. Revista de pensamiento, crítica y estudios literarios latinoamericanos 21. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Press, 2020. 11-23. file:///C:/Users/ELM15/Downloads/31-35-PB.pdf
“El Libro de los Anales de Puno: El archivo histórico que nos dejó Churata para emprender una reescritura de la historia de Puno”. Rutas y constelaciones sobre Gamaliel Churata. Mitología. Hoy. Revista de pensamiento, crítica y estudios literarios latinoamericanos 21. Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Press, 2020. 22-44. file:///C:/Users/ELM15/Downloads/31-35-PB.pdf
“La crítica de Gamaliel Churata al sistema filosófico de Platón o cómo construir un mundo a-teológico y des-jerarquizado”. Gamaliel Churata: El escritor, el filósofo, el artista que no conocíamos. Pittsburgh: IILI. 2019. 245-273.
“Dissidências estéticas andinas para não andar pela vida ‘sem khepi para a viagem, sem mãe para amar, sem kuka para o canto’”. Levantar bem alto um livro! Arquivo, tempo e imagem. Maria Aparecida Barbosa, Meritxell Hernando Marsal e Jair Tadeu da Fonseca, organização. São Paulo: Rafael Copetti Editor. 125-140.
“Los chulpares de Kutimpu y Sillustani en la escritura de Gamaliel Churata: Poética y política del paisaje espectral”. Visiones de los Andes. Ensayos críticos sobre el concepto de paisaje y región en los Andes. Jorge Coronado y Ximena Briceño, eds. La Paz: Plural Editores, 2019. 133-159.
“Gamaliel Churata y esa beligerancia estética conceptualizada como Andinismo”. Crítica de la razón andina, Carlos Abreu Mendoza and Denise Y. Arnold, eds. Raleigh. NC.: Editorial A Contracorriente, 2018. 115-136.
Recent Graduate Courses
SPAN 2445 Reframing the Avant-Garde
SPAN 2450 Gamaliel Churata: The Makers of la Vanguardia Plebeya del Titikaka
SPAN 2450 Post-anthropocentric Turns in the Production of Latin American Critical Thinking
SPAN 2462 Latin American Poetry. Confronting the Rule of Metaphor: Churata, Darío,
Huidobro, García Lorca, Martínez, Saenz, and Vallejo
SPAN 2464 Andean Studies: Mariategui, Vallejo, Arguedas and Churata
SPAN 2465 Indigenism and Ethnic Politics
SPAN 2465 The Andean Manuscript: Beyond the Reach of the Imperial Gaze
Recent Undergraduate Courses
SPAN 1250 Hispanic Civilizations
SPAN 1400 Latin American Literatures
SPAN 1403 Andean and Mexican Popular Culture: Film, Music, Dance and Painting
SPAN 1404 The Place of Animality in Latin American Literatures and Cultures
SPAN 1405 The Challenge of Latin American Feminism
SPAN 1600 Spanish Literature
SPAN 1806 Pre-Hispanic Literatures
Amerindian Literatures
Latin American Poetry
The Craft of Research
The History of Chocolate
GRADUATE STUDENTS SUPERVISED
César Ruiz Ledesma, in progress.
Isabel Velasco, in progress.
Magnolia Ortiz, in progress.
Paul Guillén, PhD. Director, Editorial Sol Negro and POETIKA1, Perú.
Jillian Kite, PhD. Spanish Teacher, Madeira School, USA.
Fernando Iturralde, PhD. Visiting Professor, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia.
Hernán Medina, PhD. Associate Professor, The College of Wooster.
Ximena Postigo, PhD. Assistant Professor, St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Hannah Burdette, PhD. Associate Professor, University of California, Chico.
Raquel Alfaro, PhD. Assistant Professor, Rochester University.
Gina Villamizar, PhD. Associate Professor, Youngstown State University, Ohio.
Carolina Rueda, PhD. Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma.
Alicia Ortega, PhD. Professor, Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Ecuador.
Jorge Zavaleta, PhD. Independent Scholar, Perú.
Mauricio Duarte, PhD. Associate Professor, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait.
Rosario Rodríguez, PhD. Full Professor, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Bolivia.
Aurelia Gómez de Unamuno, PhD. Associate Professor, Haverford College.
Emil’ Keme (Emilio del Valle), PhD. Associate Professor, Emory University.
Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tiJUBkIUbE “Desafíos y problematizaciones amerindias en el campo del “giro ontológico”. JALLA-México, 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=iqw5gTMkits “Gamaliel Churata y la Construcción de un pensamiento anti-ilustrado”. I Congreso Internacional de Literaturas y Culturas Andinas y II Congreso Nacional de Literatura. Conmemorando los 50 años de fallecimiento de Gamaliel Churata y José María Arguedas. Puno, 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeD6zGReS1w “Antonio Melis sigue hablándonos”. JALLA-Rio Branco, 2018.