Between Worlds: Where Peru Meets Arkansas

As part of the events for International Education Week, Erika Almenara, associate professor of Spanish and associate director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program, will give a talk about her research as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Peru and her book, The Language of the In-Between.

The University Bookstore will host the event at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14. The bookstore is at 616 Garland Avenue, Fayetteville, with parking available in the Garland Avenue Parking Garage.

Almenara spent five months in Peru conducting research for her second book, Literary and Cultural Representations of Social Gender Perception in Post-Conflict Peru which addresses how violence, murder, torture, rape, and the violation of human rights towards indigenous communities during the Peruvian Internal Armed Conflict and the authoritarian governments of Alberto Fujimori impacted the perception of gender.

Almenara's research, teaching and community involvement study the ways cultural objects give and produce the voice of marginalized communities and subjects. Her academic training and research trajectory draws on her transnational experience as a bisexual, Latin American immigrant. It also makes use of her early formation as a creative writer whose work explores her experience of dealing with her own history as a sexual abuse survivor.

Because of this, she is committed to promoting the value of understanding the rich experiences of marginalized groups. As a scholar-teacher, she is invested in building community with and for those whose voice has not been historically heard.