Bolivar House Visitors

Latin American Perspectives Lecturer

Pedro Erber, Cornell University Pedro Erber holds a Ph.D. in East Asian studies from Cornell University. His research interests include Brazilian and Japanese intellectual history, literature, and visual cultures; peripheral modernisms; Lusophone literature and culture; articulations of humanistic enquiry; and economic theory. In winter 2020, Professor Erber co-taught ILAC 233: Current Debates in Brazilian Studies with Professor Héctor Hoyos (ILAC) and Professor Alfredo Cesar Melo (Universidade Estadual de Campinas).

Tinker Visiting Professors

Maria Paula Bertran, University of São Paulo Maria Paula Bertran holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of São Paulo. Her research focuses mainly on banking regulation and its outcomes for consumer’s rights; the increase of inequality; and sustainable economic growth. In winter 2020, Professor Bertran taught LAW 5041: Business, Institutions, and Corruption in Latin America.

Eugénia Cunha, University of Coimbra Eugénia Cunha holds a Ph.D. in physical anthropology from the University of Coimbra. Her research interests are forensic anthropology and skeletal biology. In winter 2020, Professor Cunha co-taught CSRE 212: Biology, Culture and Social Justice in Latin America: Perspectives from Forensic Anthropology with Professor Bridget Algee-Hewitt (CCSRE).

Gabriel Gatti, University of the Basque Country Gabriel Gatti holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of the Basque Country. His research interests focus on the figure of the victim and the category of disappearance. Professor Gatti taught ILAC 209: Desaparecidos in autumn 2019 and ILAC 258: Narratives at the Edge of Life in winter 2020.

Nabuco Visiting Scholar

Alfredo Cesar Melo, University of Campinas Alfredo Cesar Melo holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include intellectual history, postcolonial studies, and the Brazilian essayistic tradition. In winter 2020, Professor Melo co-taught ILAC 233: Current Debates in Brazilian Studies with Professor Héctor Hoyos (ILAC) and Professor Pedro Erber (Cornell University).

Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, Independent Scholar Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a Maya-K’iche’ scholar, journalist, activist, and international spokeswoman for indigenous communities in Central America. Professor Velásquez Nimatuj taught LATINAM 264VP: Indigenous Resistance and Contradictions in Latin America in autumn 2019 and LATINAM 266VP: A Critical Review of Guatemala’s Indigenous Movements in winter 2020.

Aparecida Vilaça, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Aparecida Vilaça holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Her research focuses on the school learning of science by Wari’ children and young people, with the aim of understanding the equivocations produced in the encounter between different ontologies, especially regarding the idea of nature. In winter 2020, she co-taught ANTHRO 281: Religion and Science in the Amazon and Elsewhere with Professor Tanya Luhrmann (Anthropology).

Juan Villoro, Author and Scholar of Literature Juan Villoro is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and journalist, and a member of the prestigious Colegio Nacional (Mexico). He has been a professor of literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a visiting professor at Yale University, Boston College, Pompeu Fabra University, and Princeton University. His books in English are The Guilty, The Reef, God is Round, and The Wild Book. In winter 2020, he taught ILAC 262: Fiction and History in the Mexican Novel.