Eugene H. Falk Distinguished Professor of English & Comparative Literature / Director of The UNC Latina/o Studies Program
Ph.D., June 1997 Harvard University, English and American Literature
M.A., 1988 Harvard University, English and American Literature
B.A., 1986 Brown University, Summa Cum Laude, Double concentration in American Literature and Hispanic Studies
Bio
My specializations are Latina/o Studies and U.S. literary and cultural studies. As Founding Director of the UNC Latina/o Studies Program, I have published three scholarly books, Spain’s Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo-American Empire (University of Minnesota Press, 2005); Buenas Noches, American Culture: Latina/o Aesthetics of Night (Indiana University Press, 2012); and Understanding John Rechy (University of South Carolina Press, Sept. 2019). I have published many articles on Latina/o cultural production, and I write and teach about relationships between literature and various kinds of photographic practice. I am also a conceptual photographer and a music composer / sound designer. My photography has been exhibited nationally (including at the ICA in Boston, MA) and internationally (including at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, England). I have published a creative nonfiction essay in Callaloo; photography in The Grief Diaries, Coffin Bell, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Map Literary, Two Hawks Quarterly, Harbor Review, The Halcyone, Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Ponder Review, Alluvian, streetcake: a magazine of experimental writing, Galdrar of Tempered Runes Press, and The Closed Eye Open; creative nonfiction photo-text pieces in Oyster River Pages and La Piccioletta Barca; photo-text flash fiction in Bombay Gin, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts, and SolLit: A Magazine of Diverse Voices; poetry in The Kentucky Poetry Review, The Cape Rock, Empty Mirror, and Landlocked Magazine; and short stories in Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas, Huizache: The Magazine of Latino Literature, Sinister Wisdom, and Obelus Journal. My SoundCloud website may be found at: https://soundcloud.com/mariadeguzman.
To read more, visit my websitePublications:
- Understanding John Rechy (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2019).
- Buenas Noches, American Culture: Latina/o Aesthetics of Night (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2012).
- Spain’s Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo-American Empire(Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
- “Latinx: ¡Estamos aquí!, or being ‘Latinx’ at UNC-Chapel Hill.” In “Theorizing Latinx” (Claudia Milian, guest editor), special issue of Cultural Dynamics, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 2017): 214–30.
- “Four Contemporary Latina/o Writers Ghost the U.S. South.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South (Fred Hobson and Barbara Ladd, editors). New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. 454-72.
- “The Emerging Geographies of a Latina/o Studies Program.” In “Carolina del Norte: Geographies of Latinization in the South” (Altha Cravey and Gabriela Valdivia, guest editors), special issue of Southeastern Geographer, vol. 51, no. 2 (Summer 2011): 307–26.
Teaching Awards
- University Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction Spring 2019
- Excellence in Graduate Student Advocacy Award from the Comparative Literature and English Association of Graduate Students Fall 2015
- University Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Spring 2005
- Course Development Grant from the Williamson Fund, UNC-CH ($4,000.00) Nov. 1999
- Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching Sept. 1999
- Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching Sept. 1998
- Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching Spring, 1990
- Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching Fall, 1989
Awards
- Frank Porter Graham Society for outstanding service to the University and Graduate community Spring 2018
- Recognition Award for Faculty Diversity, Achievement, and Success Dec. 2014
- Fully paid research leave through the Dept. of English & Comparative Lit. Fall 2013
- Faculty Diversity Award for promoting equity on campus Spring 2012
- Fully paid research leave through the Dept. of English & Comparative Lit. Spring 2008
- UNC-CH Spray Randleigh Fellowship ($15,000) Spring 2006
- Alternate for the Kauffman Faculty Fellowship Spring 2005
- UNC-CH Spray-Randleigh Fellowship for Junior Faculty ($15,000) Spring 2004
- Fall Semester 2004 Faculty Fellowship at the UNC Institute for The Arts and Humanities ($27,500) Fall 2004
- University Research Council Research Grant ($1,000) Fall 2003
- UNC-CH Spray-Randleigh Fellowship for Junior Faculty ($15,000), declined Spring 2002
- UNC Faculty Research and Study Leave from UNC-CH ($25,830.00) Fall 2000
Courses Taught:
- English 864: Studies in Latinx Literatures, Cultures, Criticism (including “LatinX Environmentalisms”)
- English 690: Special Topics as “LatinX Environmentalisms”
- English 666: Queer LatinX Literature & Photography
- English 685: Photography in LatinX Short Fiction of the Americas
- English 221H: U.S. Literature, 1900 – 2000 (Night Optics of the US Novel)
- English 150: Intro Seminar to Literary Studies