Graduate Student Affiliates

Biography: Francisco Cantero Soriano is a Ph.D. Candidate in Iberian, Latin American, and Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literatures and Cultures at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey (USA). He studied a Master's in Hispanic Studies at Auburn University (Alabama) and a Master's in Hispanic Studies at the University of Cádiz. His current research focuses on the intersection and manifestation of the (queer) body in the poetics of Republican Spanish exile in 20th and 21st century Spain in relation to Latin America, analyzing the linguistic mechanisms of ethical, poetic, and political embodiment in the text. In the field of Comparative Literature, he has argued for the relevance of studying the pictorial and intertextual components in the poetry of Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) as indivisible significants of his poetic work, in relation to the work of Federico García Lorca (1898-1936). During the COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama, he conducted a pictorial translation of García Lorca's work "Poet in New York" into ten paintings, using English translations. He is currently working on an English translation of Agustín Gómez Arcos's (1933-1998) work "Poesías." In the cultural field, he is the founder and director of the academic journal of Spanish literature and art, ÍMPETU, which fosters a collaborative space between academic research and artistic practice with international poets and artists.

Will be added shortly.

    Lorena Avila Jaimes's academic interests focus on the intersections of civil and criminal law (specifically diasporas and immigration issues), courts and legal pluralism, and inequality. Some of Lorena Avila Jaimes's focus has been on internal migration, forced displacement, in Colombia, and international migration in war contexts and economic precarity contexts. Currently, Lorena is more focused on the latter, capturing the presence of the south in the north, and analyzing the intersections of criminal law and immigration law to socially control specifically Central Americans and Mexicans, and Latin Americans overall. Lorena has also previously done work on legal pluralism and human rights advocacy. More broadly, supporting scenarios where human rights protection mechanisms and indigenous traditions are knowledgeable for populations around the Latin American region, sometimes in its contradictions, but also in its intersections.