Paola Uparela (Assistant Professor, Hispanic Literature) specializes in Colonial and Transatlantic Latin American cultural studies, gender, sexuality, and queer studies, visual culture, race, and biopolitics. She holds a PhD in Spanish (2019) and an MA in Latin American and Iberian Studies (2015) from the University of Notre Dame, as well as a BA in Literature from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia, 2010).
Paola’s current research focuses on the colonial emergence of gyneco-scopic regimes and on the material and symbolic violence that made the female genitalia ultra-visible and intelligible. Paola has received numerous teaching and research awards, such as the 2018 Victoria Urbano Essay Award, the Feministas Unidas Essay Prize, and the fellowship Feminisms and Science: Women in STEM. Paola’s articles appear in H-ART, Hispanic Issues, A contracorriente, Lingüística y Literatura, among other academic journals. When Paola is not working, she does performing arts and loves to dance.