Eugene H. Falk Distinguished Professor of English & Comparative Literature and Founding 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).
- 8,464-word article titled “LatinX Botanical Epistemologies,” published in the tri-annual journal Cultural Dynamics, (SAGE publications), Vol. 31 (1–2): 108–124. The article was published on its own Fall 2018 but was also included in a collection of articles published in Cultural Dynamics Spring 2019. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0921374018802021.
- 12,000-word article titled “Rane Arroyo’s Astronomical Optics in ‘Solar Constant’” publication in CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, vol. 30, no. 2 (Summer 2018): 200–233. This article includes 13 of my own photographs created to accompany the article as part of my interpretive response to Rane Arroyo’s last book of poems published before his death in 2010.
- 9000-word article titled “Latinx: ¡Estamos aquí!, or being Latinx at UNC–Chapel Hill” published in Cultural Dynamics, vol. 29, no. 3 (August 2017): 214–230. Edited by Michaeline Crichlow (Duke University) along with associate editors. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0921374017727852.
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, Theory
- English 687: Queer LatinX Environmentalisms
- English 666: Queer LatinX Literature & Photography
- English 221 & 221H: U.S. Literature, 1900 – to the present (Night Optics of the U.S. Novel)