Nanci Buiza received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Emory University. Prior to Emory, she studied at California State University, Long Beach, where she completed her undergraduate studies and received an M.A. in Spanish literature.

Professor Buiza’s research and teaching focus on contemporary Mexican and Central American literature, culture, and cinema. She teaches courses on peace and conflict in Central America; state oppression, violence, and human rights in Mexico; migration along the Central America-Mexico-U.S. corridor; and the impact of neoliberalism in both Mexico and Central America. Her publications and courses approach these topics from the perspectives of trauma, memory, ethics, aesthetics, and affect theory.

She has published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, A Contracorriente, Istmo: Revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos, Iberoamericana, Hispanic Research Journal, Hispanófila, and Iowa Literaria. She has also contributed articles to the anthologies: Teaching Central American Literature in a Global Context, The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel, and Tiranas ficciones: poética y política de la escritura en la obra de Horacio Castellanos Moya.

Professor Buiza was born in El Salvador during her country’s civil war and migrated to Los Angeles as a teenager. The experiences of war, family fragmentation, and migration inform her research interests.

A list of her publications can be found here and MLA.  If you have any questions about accessing her articles, please email her: nbuiza1@swarthmore.edu

PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

“The Culture of Peace and its Neoliberal Bargains: On Jacinta Escudos’s A-B-Sudario.” A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos, vol. 21, no. 3, May 2024, pp. 45-65.

 “The Political Uses of Affect in Central America’s Literature of Resistance.” Istmo: Revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos, no.47, 2023, pp.7-23.

“The Central American Novel.” In: The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel. Edited by Juan E. De Castro and Ignacio López-Calvo. Oxford Handbook Series, Oxford University Press (2023).

“Experiencing the Literature of Postwar Central America: On Disaffection, Alienation, and Survival.” In: Teaching Central American Literature in a Global Context. Edited by Gloria E. Chacón and Mónica Albizúrez. Modern Language Association of America (MLA), Options for Teaching Series (2022).

“The Spectacle of Peace and the Politics of Memory in Postwar El Salvador: On Miguel Huezo Mixco’s La casa de Moravia.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 54, no.1, 2020, pp.73-92.

“La búsqueda del mythos en la posguerra centroamericana: una aproximación a la narrativa de Rodrigo Rey Rosa.” Iowa Literaria, no.1, 2020.

“On Aesthetic Experience and Trauma in Postwar Central America: The Case of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s El asco and Claudia Hernández’s De Fronteras.” Hispanófila, vol.184, Diciembre 2018, pp.99-115.

“Crossing Mexico on la Bestia: The Central American Migrant Experience in the Documentary Films Which Way Home and Who Is Dayani Cristal?” Hispanic Research Journal, vol.19, no.4, 2018, pp.415-429.

“El trauma y la poética de afecto en Insensatez de Horacio Castellanos Moya.” Translated by Estefanía Pardo Becerra and María Cornelio. In: Tiranas ficciones: poética y política de la escritura en la obra de Horacio Castellanos Moya. Edited by Magdalena Perkowska and Oswaldo Zavala. Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI), University of Pittsburgh (2018).

“Safeguarding El Salvador’s Transition to Peace and Democracy: A View from the Cultural and Political Magazine Tendencias (1991-2000).” Iberoamericana, vol.18, no.68, 2018, pp.167-185.

“The Ethical Question in Postwar Central America and the Mutilated Good in Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s El cojo bueno.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, vol.27, no.1, 2018, pp.97-114.

“Trastornando la jerarquía humano-animal: la alienación de la sociedad en la obra de Claudia Hernández.” Istmo: Revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos, no.34, 2017, pp.1-14.

“Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s El material humano and the Labyrinth of Postwar Guatemala: On Ethics, Truth, and Justice.” A Contracorriente: A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America, vol.14, no.1, 2016, pp. 58-79.

“Trauma and the Poetics of Affect in Horacio Castellanos Moya’s Insensatez.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol.47, no.1, 2013, pp.151-172.

LIST OF COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT 

Civil Wars and Neoliberal Peace in Central America (Peace and Conflict Studies, PEAC 038)

México 1968: la violencia del Estado de ayer y hoy (Mexican Studies, SPAN 084)

Cruzando fronteras: el cine mexicano de ayer y hoy (Mexican Cinema, SPAN 087)

Los hijos de la Malinche: representaciones culturales de la Revolución Mexicana (Mexican Literature, SPAN 080)

Trauma y derechos humanos en la literatura centroamericana (Central American Literature, Honors seminar, SPAN 103)

Imágenes y contextos hispánicos (Transatlantic Hispanic Cultural History, SPAN 012)

Pasados desgarradores: revolución y trauma en la literatura centroamericana (Central American Literature, SPAN 088)