Ph.D. Berkeley (2002). Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature.

My primary research interests are Latin American fiction and essay, film studies, North-South issues and popular music. I am especially keen on the cultural commerce between Latin America and the United States, particularly during the first half of the 20th century. Most recently, I have edited an anthology of essays from the 1920s-1940s documenting the initial impact of North American cinema on Latin American intellectuals, titled Avances de Hollywood and published in 2005 by Beatriz Viterbo (Argentina). In the last couple of years I have written articles on such issues as the cinematic fiction of Horacio Quiroga and Monteiro Lobato, Disney's early impact on Latin American letters, Cabrera Infante and pre-revolutionary Cuban film criticism, and the Latin American literary vanguards' appropriation of jazz music. I have recently completed work on a full-length book (Latin American Writers and the Rise of Hollywood Cinema) exploring the various ways in which Latin American novelists, poets and journalists first came to terms with the international film industry (Routledge, forthcoming). 

My teaching at Vanderbilt focuses on Latin American literature, cultural studies and film.