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At the third biennial conference of the Latina/o Studies Association in Washington, DC, I presented on a panel organized by Ylce Irizarry entitled, “Against the Grain: Producing Alternative Archives of Latinidad.” I shared a comparative analysis of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers. Ylce Irizarry from the University of South Florida spoke about “Latina/o Literature after 1992: Alternative Archives of Latinidad“ and John Ribó from Florida State University discussed “ “How to Read Unsafely: Farming the Bones of Latinx Literature.”

At the 11th International Conference on Chicano Literature and Latino Studies, which was held in Salamanca, Spain, I presented on a panel organized by Ylce Irizarry entitled, “Against the Grain: Producing Alternative Archives of Latinidad,” which was chaired by Amanda Gerke from the Universidad de Salamanca. I presented a comparative analysis of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers. Ylce Irizarry from the University of South Florida spoke about “Latina/o Literature after 1992: Alternative Archives of Latinidad“ and Marion Rohrleitner from University of Texas at El Paso discussed “Afro-Dominicans Write Back: Deconstructing the Canonical Latina/o Gaze.”

At the Latin American Studies Association Congress, which was held in Barcelona, Spain. I presented a comparative analysis of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers. My fellow panelists were: Marisel Moreno, University of Notre Dame; Sarah Quesada, University of Notre Dame; and Marion Rohrleitner, University of Texas at El Paso.

I participated in the “Contemporary Latina/o/x Aesthetics” Stream at the American Comparative Literature Association, which was held on the UCLA campus. I presented a comparative analysis of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers. Other panelists included:

John Alba Cutler, Northwestern University; Elda Maria Roman, University of Southern California; David Vázquez, University of Oregon; Jennifer Harford Vargas, Bryn Mawr College; Zorimar Rivera Montes, Northwestern University; Ariana Ruiz, University of Iowa; Tanya Gonzalez, Kansas State University; Julie Minich, The University of Texas at Austin; Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson, Loyola Marymount University.

I had the good fortune to present alongside Marci McMahon, in March 2018 at the Colloquium for the Study of Latina/o/x Culture and Theory, which is hosted by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Professor McMahon’s presentation was entitled, “¡Pos Órale!: Listening to Pachuquismo in the 40th Anniversary Production of Zoot Suit.”

In turn, I provided a short introduction to my comparative analysis of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers. Inmaculada Lara Bonilla of Hostos Community College acted as the respondent for my presentation and I also received great feedback from the faculty in attendance, who included Bill Orchard, Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez, Eric Vázquez, Juan Recondo and Laura Lomas.

The New West Indian Guide has published a review of Market Aesthetics.

Cristina Rodriguez comments on how Market Aesthetics is “remarkably well researched,” with “literary analyses [that] masterfully thread the novels together.” She sees the book “encourag[ing] scholars of Caribbean literature in our various relegated areas— Hispanophone, Latinx, African-American, Francophone, and Afro-Canadian, among others—to look outside of those boundaries.”

Check out the rest of the review here.

The journal Anthurium has published a review of Market Aesthetics.

Paula Park posits that “Market Aesthetics gives new insights to how Caribbean diasporic writers seek to communicate with readers who consume their historical fiction.” Additionally, she argues that the book “asks readers of Caribbean historical fiction to evaluate their goal as they invest themselves in a reality and a past that they cannot experience first hand. In the end, Machado Sáez thoughtfully reminds us that we—as scholars or readers— will never cease to question our ethical imperative because we are also part of a market that endeavors to label us one way or another.”

Check out the rest of the review here.

Despite the obstacles presented by the “bomb cyclone” blizzard, the MLA 2018 panel on “Digital Humanities in Practice: Caribbean Models” was a resounding success. Megan Jeanette Myers of Iowa State University moderated thepanel. While Kaiama L. Glover of Barnard College was unable to attend, the panel opened with a discussion of her multimodal collaborative project, In the Same Boats. Nathan Dize of Vanderbilt University presented on “An Explosion in the Archives: Reframing French Archives through Caribbean Digital Praxis”and discussed on the DH archive project, Colonies in Crisis. As the final presenter, Elena Machado Sáez introduced her current research project, comparing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s strategies for negotiating intimacy and ethics on Twitter with those of other Latinx-Caribbean writers. She focused on a comparative analysis of Miranda’s use of Twitter, distinguishing his rhetoric of affiliation from that of other Latinx writers.

Today I received the official word from the Modern Language Association that I have been elected to a five-year term on the executive committee of the forum for Latina and Latino Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. That means I will serve as a member of the committee from January 8, 2018 until the end of the January 2023 convention.

The Latina and Latino forum organizes various panels on the topic of US Latinx Studies at the MLA convention by issuing thematic CFP’s in advance of the conference. Additionally, the forum is tasked with sustaining a scholarly community and offers opportunities for networking outside of the convention sessions by hosting cash bar receptions, often in collaboration with other forums. Finally, Latina and Latino forum promotes Latinx literary studies via MLACommons.

At the 2017 Caribbean Studies Association conference held in the Bahamas, Elena Machado Sáez chaired a panel on “Absent Presence: Silenced Histories in Caribbean Writing and Art.” She presented on “Blackout on Broadway: Affiliation and Audience in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton.” Her fellow panelists included Jocelyn Stitt from the University of Michigan who presented on “Raw Materials? Absence and Caribbean Knowledge” and Sobeira Latorre from Southern Connecticut State University who presented on “Blackness, Taínos, and Historical Recovery in Dominican Literature in the US.”