Summary
Languages: Spanish (Native speaker), English, Portuguese (reading), German (reading), French (reading), and Italian (reading).
I am a dark coffee lover born in Bogotá, Colombia, and a proud son, brother, and uncle from a peasant family. While I have spent most of my life in the crazy Downtown Bogotá and had my childhood summers in one of the tiniest towns in Central Colombia (where my parents were born), I also lived in London where I worked in different menial jobs such as kitchen porter, gardener and Spanish teacher of refugees’ children while making friends with (self)exiles from Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Later I lived in New York City and Chicago while pursuing doctoral studies in Art History and writing my dissertation on violence, peasants, and cultural memory. My peasant roots, nomadic spirit of sorts, and eclectic education background (a BA and MA in Electrical Engineering and an MA in Philosophy) inform my commitment to inclusion, equality, and diversity, my interdisciplinary research and teaching on the Global South, and my interests connecting humanities, sciences, and technology.
I am an interdisciplinary researcher in contemporary and modern art and visual culture in the Americas and the Global South, with an emphasis on Latin American and Latinx arts, and interests in Afro-Latin, Native, and African Arts. I focus on the crossing between decoloniality, memory, violence, performance, gender, moving images, and photography. I hold a PhD from Stony Brook University (2015). My research has been published in venues such as TDR The Drama Review, Photographies, Cinergie—Il Cinema e le altre Arti, Revista Chilena de Literatura, Revista de Estudios Sociales, and edited books. I have been awarded the National Prize in Art Criticism, merit-based National Research Grants in Visual Arts and Dance, and a merit-based travel Grant from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center, among others. I have organized international symposia in contemporary art history and performance philosophy and have been a keynote speaker at art and academic events. I have advised interdisciplinary dissertations, master’s thesis, and undergraduate projects in Art History, Art, and Architecture and I look forward to continuing expanding my research and advising experience at the University of Nevada, Reno. UNR. Before joining UNR I served as a Visiting Professor in Art History at Kalamazoo College and Assistant Professor at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia).