Joanna O'Connell
9 Pleasant St SE
Minneapolis,
MN
55455
My research and teaching has always been oriented around the ways that writing functions to express and create multiple possible affiliations, and the ways that literary and educational institutions are terrains of negotiation and struggle over those possibilities. In the context of Mexican and Carribean studies, I look at ethnic and racial conflict in the context of nationalisms, women's entry into the sphere of cultural production, and the long history of literacy technologies (from precolonial Maya writing to use of emerging digital technologies) in the Americas. I am currently seeking to understand and communicate the impact of emerging social media on the study of Spanish at universities in the U.S.
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: Comparative Literature (Spanish, French, English), University of California at Berkeley, 1998 - none
- B.A.: Comparative Literature, University of California at Berkeley, 1979 - none
Specialties
- African and Caribbean writing in French and English
- indigenous revitalization movements and writing
- issues of colonialism, race and nationalism
- Latin-American literature and culture
- Mexico
- the Caribbean
- women's writing
- feminism and feminist theory