Staff

Alejandro Quin
Acting Director - Latin American Studies, Director of Graduate Studies
Get to know Alejandro
Acting Director Latin American Studies,
Director of Graduate Studies
envelope a.quin@utah.edu | phone 801-581-7561
Get to Know Alejandro
Alejandro Quin is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American studies. His research and teaching interests include modern and contemporary Latin American literature and culture, Spanish-American fiction and intellectual history, environmental studies, and the relations between politics, the state, and the field of cultural production from national and transnational perspectives, particularly in the South American context.
Education
Ph.D. Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
M.A. Spanish, University of Florida
B.A. Philosophy, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Research, Publications, and Interests
- “Rubber.” Latin American Literature in Transition 1870-1930. Eds. Fernando Degiovanni and Javier Uriarte. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
- “Photography, Inoperative Ethnography, Naturalism: On Sharon Lockhart’s Amazon Project.” Intimate Frontiers. A Literary Geography of the Amazon. Eds. Javier Uriarte and Felipe Martínez-Pinzón. Liverpool University Press, 2019: 227-247.
- “Guerra, biopolítica e inadaptación: los yerbales paraguayos de Rafael Barrett.” Latin American Literary Review. Vol 46. 92. (2019): 13-21.
- “García Márquez, lector de Walter Benjamin. Apuntes sobre la destrucción de Macondo.” Hispanic Research Journal. Vol 20. 3. (2019): 257-271.
- Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America. Exposing Paraguay. Eds. Federico Pous, A. Quin, and M. Viera. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018
- “Poetry and Revisionism: Notes on Authority and Restoration in Postwar Paraguay.” Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America. Exposing Paraguay. Eds. Federico Pous, Alejandro Quin, Marcelino Viera. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018: 39-56.
- “Trazos de agrimensura: soberanía, límites y rebelión en José Eustasio Rivera.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. 42.1 (2017): 123-144.
- “Beyond theDuality of the World: Guerrilla Experience and Political Ecology (Apropos Omar Cabezas’La montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde).” Romance Notes. 57.1 (2017): 37-47.
- “Escritura sobre ruinas: Augusto Roa Bastos, la trilogía paraguaya y el acontecimiento en Hijo de hombre.” A Contracorriente. A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America. Vol 14. 1. (2016): 226-249.
- “Negación sin oposición: el dandi como soberano en De sobremesa.” Insomne pasado: lecturas críticas de Latinoamérica colonial. Eds. Karina Vázquez, Claudia García, and Grazyna Walczak. F&G Editores, 2016: 155-189.
- “Medina Reyes: impostura, sujeción, riesgo.” La invención del autor. Nuevas aproximaciones al estudio sociológico y discursivo de la figura autorial. Ed. Juan Zapata. Medellín: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 2014: 256-268.
- Spanish and English, fluent
- Portuguese, intermediate-advanced
- French, reading knowledge
Susie Porter
Director, Latin American Studies
envelope s.porter@utah.edu | phone 801-585-5693
Get to Know Susie
Susie Porter, Professor in History and Gender Studies, has worked as a bartender, waitress, house cleaner, cashier, babysitter, secretary, and stuffing jelly doughnuts at a bakery. While there was much to love in all of these jobs, she chose studying history because, she says, it is liberating. It is liberating to know that things have not always been as they are. This means things can change. She chose a career in the humanities because it is a place where people can dream, create, and effect change.
Porter is the author of two award-winning books: Workingwomen in Mexico City: public discourses and material conditions, 1879-1931 (University of Arizona Press, 2003); and, From Angel to Office Worker: Middle-Class Identity and Female Consciousness in Mexico, 1890-1950 (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). Spanish-language version of both books were published by El Colegio de Michoacán press (2008 and 2020, respectively). Porter is co-editor of two volumes: Orden social e identidad de género. México siglos XIX y XX, with María Teresa Fernández Aceves and Carmen Ramos Escandón (CIESAS/ Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006); and, Género en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural, with María Teresa Fernández Aceves (CIESAS/ El Colegio de Michoacán, 2015). Porter has also published a collection of historical documents, with Nora Jaffray and Ed Osowski (Westview, 2009), as well as numerous articles. She was designated Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at the University of Utah (2019). She serves as a country conditions expertise for asylum cases and was a founder of the Westside Leadership Institute (Spanish-language seminar).
Education
Ph.D., History, University of California, San Diego (Eric Van Young, Adivsor)
C.Phil. and M.A., History, University of California, San Diego
B.A., Latin American Studies, University California, Berkeley (with highest honors)
Research, Publications, and Interests
- “La Bola,” bilingual children’s story on the Mexican Revolution (submitted for consideration) Literary Arts, submitted 12/2010.
- “Gender, race, and the evolution of middle-class identity in the Mexico City press,1820-1900” in The Latin American Middle Classes, Claudia Stern, Mario Barbosa Cruz, and Ricardo López, eds. Routledge Press. Accepted, 05/01/2020.
- Susie S. Porter (2020). Digital Gender Collections at the Rosario Castellanos Library, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.”. Oxford University Press on-line. Accepted, 01/01/2020.
- Susie S. Porter & Ana Lau Jaiven y Elsie McPahil Fanger, eds (2019). De mujer hermosa a mujer poderosa: una biografía de Otilia Zambrano García” Rupturas y continuidades, Ana Lau Jaiven y Elsie McPahil Fanger, eds . (pp. 40pp.). Universidad Autónoma de México, Xochimilco.. Published, 01/01/2019.
- Susie S. Porter (2018). “Women and self-expression through textiles: past and present.” . Oxford University Press. Published, 09/07/2018.
- Susie S. Porter (2018). From Angel to Office Worker: Middle-Class Identity and Female Consciousness in Mexico, 1890–1950. University of Nebraska Press. Published, 06/01/2018. Link
- Orden social e identidad de género. México siglos XIX y XX, María Teresa Fernández Aceves, Carmen Ramos Escandón y Susie Porter, eds., (Guadalajara, CIESAS-Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006). Published, 01/01/2016.
- "DE OBRERAS Y SEÑORITAS: CULTURAS DE TRABAJO EN LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO EN LA COMPAÑÍA ERICSSON, EN LA DÉCADA DE 1920," in Género en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural en México. Published, 12/31/2015.
- “Introducción” en Género en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural de México, México, CIESAS, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2015, 9-31. 978-607-9470-18-0 . Published, 12/31/2015.
- Género en la encrucijada de la historia social y cultural de México, México, CIESAS, El Colegio de Michoacán, 2015. 978-607-9470-18-0 Tiraje 500 ejemplares. Published, 12/31/2015.
- Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico edited by Víctor M. Macías-González, Anne Rubenstein. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2012, for H-HistSex, 2,500 subscribers. Published, 09/01/2015.
- “Women and Labor in Twentieth-Century Latin America,” (Oxford University Press, on- line annotated bibliography, 2014). Published, 12/31/2014.
- Working Women, Entrepreneurs, and the Mexican Revolution: The Coffee Culture of Córdoba, Veracruz, by Heather Fowler-Salamini, Hispanic American Historical Review (2014) 94(3): 514-515.. Published, 01/01/2014.
- “Women, Welfare, and the State in Latin American history,” review of 6 books in Journal of Women’s History vol. 25 no. 3, 2013. Published, 01/01/2013.
- 2012 Runaway Daughters: Seduction, Elopement, and Honor in Nineteenth Century Mexico by Kathrine A. Sloan (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2008) in Journal of the History of Sexuality (submitted). Published, 01/2012.
- “The Apogee of Revolution, 1934-1946,” A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, edited by William Beezley (Blackwell, 2011). Published, 10/2011.
- 2011 Contar las cosas como fueron, by Evangelina Corona, México: DEMAC, 2008, in Hispanic American Historical Review (February 2011). Published, 02/2011.
- 2011 Women’s Studies on the Edge, edited by Joan W. Scott. Duke University Press, 2008 in AFFILIA (February, 2011). Published, 02/2011.
- 2010 El trabajo en las calles; subsistencia y negociación política en la Ciudad de México a comienzos del siglo XX, por Mario Barbosa Cruz, Historia Mexicana no. 237, julio- septiembre, 2010. Published, 09/2010.
- Porter, Susie S. (2009). Mexican History. Westview Pr. Published, 09/08/2009.
- Mexican History: A Primary Source Reader, (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, June, 2009). Published, 01/01/2009.
- Mujeres y Trabajo: condiciones de trabajo y discursos públicos en la ciudad de México, 1879-1931 (Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán, 2009). Published, 2009.
- Revolution within the Revolution, by Jeffrey Bortz, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) in Social History (2009). Published, 2009.
- 2003 Workingwomen in Mexico City: public discourses and material conditions, 1879-1931 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2003) ---Awarded “Outstanding Book” award, Latin American Studies Association, Labor and Class Relations Studies Section, 2004. Published, 01/01/2008.
- Revolutionary Women in Postrevolutionary Mexico by Jocelyn Olcott in Hispanic American Historical Review, February, 2008 (88): 130-131. Published, 01/01/2007.
- “Empleadas públicas: normas de feminidad, espacios burocráticos e identidad de la clase media en México durante la década de 1930 in María Teresa Fernández Aceves, Carmen Ramos Escandón y Susie Porter, (eds.), Orden social e identidad de género. México siglos XIX y XX, (Guadalajara, CIESAS-Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006). Published, 02/01/2006.
- “Introducción,” Orden social e identidad de género. México siglos XIX y XX, María Teresa Fernández Aceves, Carmen Ramos Escandón y Susie Porter, eds., (Guadalajara, CIESAS-Universidad de Guadalajara, 2006). Published, 01/01/2006.
- “Empleadas: la necesidad económica, la moral sexual, hábitos de consumo, y el derecho de la mujer al trabajo” Signos históricos (enero-junio, 2004): 40-63. Published, 01/01/2004.
- Porter, Susie S. (2003). Working Women in Mexico City. Univ of Arizona Pr. Published, 10/01/2003.
- Spanish, fluent
- French, basic
- Portuguese, basic
Bryce Garner
Associate Director, Administration
envelope bryce.garner@utah.edu | phone 801-581-6702
Get to Know Bryce
Bryce graduated from the University of Utah with degrees in History and Asian Studies. After graduation, he worked in Japan for five years on the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program. He has traveled extensively in Central America, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has language abilities in Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese. He has worked for the Center for Latin American Studies and the Asia Center since 2010.
Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese.
Learning a foreign language not only gives you the opportunity to communicate with people from other countries--whether you are traveling abroad or here in the US, it also gives you a deeper understanding of people and cultures that are different from your own, broadening and enriching your interaction with the world around you.
My first international experience was living in Cambodia for two years where I learned to speak Vietnamese. When I returned to college, I started studying Chinese and after two years of study I participated in a learning abroad program at Nankai University in Tianjin, China where I completed my third year of Chinese. After graduating from college, I lived and worked in Japan for five years on the JET program and learned Japanese while I lived there. Interspersed with these longer periods I traveled extensively in Central America, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Each of my international experiences have given me a different lens to view the world from. They have helped my career and have provided opportunities to interact with people from all over the world. Through my international experiences, I have struck up lifelong friendships that have enriched my life and made me a better person.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Asian Studies, University of Utah
Bachelor of Arts, History, University of Utah
Kari Moore
Academic Program Manager
envelope kari.moore@utah.edu
Get to Know Kari
Spanish, and French but I don't remember any of it.
Language ability has been invaluable for me in my career thus far. I spent 3 years after graduation working for a nonprofit that served low-income families including a program for migrant farmworkers and would not have been able to effectively create relationships of trust and serve these families without being able to speak the language. Past my job being able to create relationships with people of different walks of life has opened my mind and heart to new perspectives that I wouldn't have gained otherwise. I also think that language gives you a new perspective on the world and on your own native language. There are a lot of words in English now that I have a better understanding of because they're used more frequently in Spanish and I have that context to use now in my native language. The beauty of learning a language is also that you're able to understand other languages to a degree that are a part of the same language family and it becomes easier to learn new languages.
I have traveled for leisure purposes to Italy, Mexico, and Peru. The bulk of my international experience took place while living in Peru as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Lima. This was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to other cultures, beliefs, and ended up shaping my decision to eventually change my major from music to Latin American Studies with a focus on nonprofit management.
I took several years of Spanish in highschool but could hardly speak the language and it was this immersive experience and the kindness of the people in Lima that finally allowed me to learn Spanish and fall absolutely in love with it and the people there.
Patrick Cheney
Scholarship & Graduate Program Coordinator
envelope patrick.cheney@utah.edu
Get to Know Patrick
Patrick graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies and M.A. in Latin American Studies. He speaks Guarani, an indigenous language of South America, and Nahuatl, an indigenous language of Mexico. He speaks Spanish, enjoys Latin American literature tremendously, and has experience as a Spanish language medical interpreter. He has worked on migrant rights projects as well as refugee resettlement. In elementary school, he once painted a tile that declared “Soccer rules” and is still convinced. He plays and applauds often.
Spanish (advanced), Nahuatl (advanced), Guarani (advanced). Brief studies of French and K'iche'.
Language learning is an epistemological rupture. It is charged. It is never ahistorical. The process cannot be extricated from the webs of systemic injustice, but perhaps can help to imagine beyond them.
I have spent close to three years in South America, living in Paraguay and Argentina, as well as other travels throughout the Southern Cone. I have traveled across Mexico multiple times and spent the most time in Sonora, Mexico City, Zacatecas, and Veracruz. I have focused on migrant rights projects, Latin American literature, and indigenous languages. I have presented at an academic conference in Puebla and participated in literary and language-learning workshops at a center for houseless rights in Buenos Aires.
I am grateful that my international experiences reframed my life in Utah as also international. Those experiences have helped unsettle my previous views on land and place. Also, my life is forever enriched for having watched Boca Juniors from the hallowed stands of La Bombonera.
Luciano Marzulli
K-16 Outreach Coordinator
envelope l.marzulli@utah.edu
Get to Know Luciano
Lu is a proud alum of the University of Utah and has worked in higher education since 2006. Professionally, Lu’s focus has been on advocacy and support for first generation college students and students of color. Through his outreach role in International and Area Studies, he looks forward to developing and maintaining community partnerships to continue this work. Lu enjoys street food, fiction books, comedy films and being outdoors. He is fluent in English and Spanish.
Lu es graduado de la Universidad de Utah y ha trabajado en instituciones/servicios post-secundarios desde 2006. Profesionalmente su enfoque ha sido en ayudar y apoyar estudiantes que son minorias o que son estudiantes de primera generación (los primeros en sus familias de asistir a la Universidad). A través de su papel dentro del departamento de estudios internacionales el esta entusiasmado de crear y mantener colaboraciones comunitarias para seguir apoyando estudiantes. Lu disfruta la comida de la calle, leer obras de ficcion, ver peliculas de comedia y pasar el tiempo afuera. Lu habla Inglés y Español.
Spanish, Italian, French, and Nahuatl.
I love being multi lingual. I feel like language ability has opened up worlds of understanding that didn't exist for me before. Half of my language learning has happened in adulthood and I wish I would have taken on more languages at a younger age when my brain was more adept to absorb them.
My international experience is travel based. I've made several trips to Mexico, in particular, Mexico City, Baja California, Oaxaca, and Merida. I've also visited Paris several times. All of my extended family lives abroad in Guatemala and Italy and I've also visited and traveled in those countries.
I'm grateful for the experiences I've had traveling abroad because it's a learning experience every time.
Blanca Yagüe
CLAC Coordinator
envelope clac@utah.edu | phone 801-581-6251
Get to Know Blanca
Originally from Spain, Blanca studied Environmental Science between Salamanca and Granada. Since 2009 has been living and researching in the Colombian Amazon, where she got her MSc in Amazonian Studies with an anthropological focus. Blanca is currently enrolled in the Anthropology Ph.D. program at the U, and continue to work in the Amazon around food issues. She teaches CLAC courses in Spanish in Anthropology and Environmental Studies. She is part of the SPARC Environmental Justice Lab at the University of Utah and is involved with the Native Voices Initiative at the NHMU. She enjoys trying new foods, especially if there are insects involved. She also likes swimming in cold waters, reading, quiet places and siestas.
Languages: Spanish (mother langue), English, Portuguese, French.
Education
M.S., Amazonian Studies, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Amazonia.
Project: "Haciendo comestible la ciudad: los indígenas urbanos de Leticia y sus redes
desde la Soberanía Alimentaria"
B.S., Environmental Sciences, Universidad de Granada.
Project: “Food Sovereignty Through Urban Agriculture in Leticia, Colombian Amazon”
Amanda Jarvis
Undergraduate Advisor
envelope amanda.jarvis@utah.edu
Education
M.A. in Middle East Studies (Emphasis: Persian),
University of Texas at Austin
H.B.A. in Middle East Studies (Emphasis: Persian),
University of Utah
Get to Know Amanda
Amanda Jarvis is from Utah and graduated from the University of Utah with a H.B.A. in Middle East Studies and a focus on Persian in 2015. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin and researched the role of leftist discourse Iranian-Venezuelan relations. She graduated with her M.A. in Middle East Studies from there in 2018. Since then, she has been working in different advising positions at Utah Valley University and now at the University of Utah.Canada, Mexico, and The Bahamas
Persian and Spanish
Armenian and/or Georgian
Learning another language helps you to become a better citizen of the world as well as your local communities. You’ll learn to see the world differently and understand more diverse groups. Learning another language also requires dedication and commitment which will help you in what ever fields you explore. Once you practice strategies for learning a language, you’ll likely see that quite a few subjects no longer seem so daunting. And of course, you’ll learn to laugh at yourself and realize you will make mistakes, but to keep going on.
I took a course about women in Iranian political history. It really changed the way I looked at how we write history, the sources we use, and the voices we center. I do not think any course prepared me quite as much for studying history at a graduate level.
Brisa Zavala
Nahuatl Summer Program Coordinator
envelope summernahuatl@utah.edu
Education
BA, Latin American Studies,
University of Utah
BS, Chemistry,
University of Utah
Awards & Recognitions
2018 Convocation Speaker
Honors at Graduation
FLAS Scholarship Recipient
Get to Know Brisa
Brisa is a chemist, researcher, and most fluent non-native speaker of Nahuatl in the U.S. Her combined passions for medical research and indigenous language study led Brisa on remarkable journeys to La Huasteca, Mexico, where her interviews with native Nahuatl communities identified similarities between the active compounds in plants used to treat nemauhtilli and those found in drugs used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Brisa is pursuing advanced degrees in medical anthropology and continue working to preserve knowledge and use of plants to treat illnesses in indigenous communities.
Since I entered the University of Utah I have realized that our challenge as students is not to pick one area of interest and go down a paved path, but to gather all of our interests and pave our own unique path. I am currently an undergraduate double majoring in Chemistry and Latin American studies, and studying Nahuatl. Finding a way to merge my love for the sciences and passion of learning Nahuatl has been a challenge; however, I have succeeded in paving my own path due to the experiences I have had as a FLAS recipient.
Receiving the FLAS fellowship has validated the importance of learning Nahuatl and has encouraged and supported my interdisciplinary interests. FLAS has provided me with many opportunities. It has allowed me to go to Yale University twice, to participate in a six-week intensive course, filled with modern Nahuatl, classical Nahuatl, and cultural activities. It has enabled me to continue to take Nahuatl and Latin American studies courses at the University of Utah. It has provided financial means to attend two intensive winter courses in Zacatecas, Mexico and visit the communities of my instructors in Chicontepec, Veracruz over two spring breaks. During my two visits to Chicontepec I have been able to interact with people of the communities –in Nahuatl– and listen to the elderly share stories, anecdotes and experiences in Nahuatl. FLAS has been my ticket to escape the STEM bubble I was in as an incoming freshman. It has granted me the opportunity to meet students from all over the world, studying different disciplines at various educational levels (bachelor’s, master’s, Ph.D.); from these interactions develop my future educational and career plans.
Thanks to the opportunities and experiences I have had as a FLAS recipient I have decided to continue on to graduate school and I am working towards creating an environment, both in academia as well as in society, where “traditional” medicine of indigenous communities is valued in the same regard as “modern” medicine thus helping to preserve the knowledge and practice of traditional medicine in Nahua communities.