New CLCS Program Director Invited to Speak at the University of Barcelona

Dr. Patricia Martinez

During the past week, Dr. Erika Almenara, associate professor of Spanish and new director of the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program, was invited to share her work on literary and cultural representations of female agency at the University of Barcelona. In these days, Almenara, invited by Dr. Patricia Martinez, associate professor of Latin American history and gender, shared with students and colleagues part of the research she conducted in Peru last year with a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. 

Grounded in feminist and post-colonial theory, Almenara's new research project looks at the way the social perception of gender has been modified in Peru in the end of the conflict between the state and the Communist Party of Peru, Shining Path. It addresses how violence, murder, torture, rape and the violation of human rights towards indigenous communities impacted the perception of gender. 

Besides visiting the University of Barcelona, Almenara met with architects, anthropologists and feminist activists from different institutions and organizations with the aim of consolidating a transatlantic research group on topics such as decolonialidad, feminist epistemologies and memory.