Ana Patricia Rodríguez

Ana Patricia Rodríguez is associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and U.S. Latina/o Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches courses in Latin American, Central American, and U.S. Latina/o literatures and cultures. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include Central American and U.S. Latina/o literatures and cultures; Central American cultural production in the U.S.; transnational migration and cultural production; diaspora studies; violence and postwar/trauma studies; gender studies; U.S. Latina/o popular culture; community-based research; and Latina/o education (K-16).

Professor Rodríguez has published numerous articles on the cultural production of Latinas/os in the United States and Central Americans in the isthmus and in the wider Central American diaspora. Her books include De la hamaca al trono y al más allá: Lecturas críticas de la obra de Manlio Argueta (co-edited with Linda J. Craft and Astvaldur Astvaldsson; San Salvador: Universidad Tecnológica, 2013) and Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures (University of Texas Press, 2009).

Professor Rodríguez was elected President of the Latina/o Studies Association (LSA) (2017-2019) and serves on the Advisory Boards of the Smithsonian Latino Gallery, Washington History, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), and Casa de la cultura de El Salvador (Washington, D.C.).

Community Engagement Projects

Please visit my site for highlights of my Community Engagement Projects. Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities

Books

Rodríguez, Ana Patricia. Dividing the Isthmus: Central American Transnational Histories, Literatures, and Cultures. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0292723481 [original edition]

Rodríguez, Ana Patricia (with Craft, Linda J. and Astvaldur Astvaldsson), ed. De la hamaca al trono y al más allá: Lecturas críticas de la obra de Manlio Argueta. San Salvador: Universidad Tecnológica, 2013. ISBN 978-9992321935 [original edition]

Articles in Books and Refereed Journals (Selected)

• “Becoming ‘Wachintonians’: Salvadorans in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area,” Washington History: A Publication of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 28.2 (Fall 2016): 3-12.
• “Diasporic Reparations: Repairing the Social Imaginaries of Central America in the Twenty-First Century.” Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, Special issue on Centroamericanidades. Ed. Arturo Arias. 37.2 (Summer 2013): 27-43.
• “Genealogías transnacionales: De Máximo Soto Hall a Francisco Goldman.” Revista Iberoamericana. Eds. Beatriz Cortez and Leonel Alvarado. 79.242 (2013): 243-256.
• “Literatures of Central Americans in the United States.” Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature. Eds. Suzanne Bost and Frances Aparicio. New York and London: Taylor & Francis / Routledge, 2012. 445-453.
• “Heridas abiertas de América Central: La salvadoreñidad de Romilia Chacón en las novelas negras de Marcos McPeek Villatoro.” Revista Iberoamericana. Ed. William J. Nichols. 76.231 (April-June 2010): 425-442.
• “The Fiction of Solidarity: Transfronterista Feminisms and Anti-Imperialist Struggles in Central American Transnational Narratives.” Feminist Studies 34.1/2 (Spring/Summer 2008): 199-226.
• “Where the Monsters Are: Margaret Millar and the ‘Mexican Problem.’” Clues: A Journal of Detection 25.3 (Spring 2007): 21-32.
• “Sueños de un callejero: The University, the CASA, and the Streets of Salvadoran Transmigrant Communities in the Langley Park Area.” Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies 2.2 (Winter 2006): 48-61.
• “The Evidence of Testimonio: The Return of the Maya.” Community College Humanities Review 24 (Fall 2003): 67-80.
• “Refugees of the South: Central Americans in the U.S. Latino Imaginary.” American Literature: Special Issue on Violence, the Body, and “the South.” Eds. Houston A. Baker and Dana D. Nelson. 73.2 (June 2001): 386-412.

Keynotes, Invited Talks, and Refereed Presentations  (Selected)

• Keynote, “Diasporic Returns in the Americas: Homeland and (Post)Memory in U.S. Central American / Latina Writing.” 13th Conference on the Americas, “Borders and Contact Zones in the Americas,” Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, March 20-21, 2015.
• Keynote, "De otras lenguas / Of Other Tongues: Ruptura e interlingualidad en la poesía de la diáspora salvadoreña,” 4o Coloquio estudiantil sobre lengua, literatura y creación literaria en la frontera, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, University of Texas-Pan American, Edinburg, TX, Dec. 5-6, 2013.
• Keynote, "'Los 30': Documenting Thirty Years of the Salvadoran Diaspora, 1980-2010,” 10th Ohio Latin Americanists Conference, Bowling Green State Univ, Bowling Green, OH, Feb. 19, 2011.
• “Liberty Pursued: Central American Child Migration, Student Activism, and Rapid Responses,”
• Panel “Liberty Crack’d,” Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference, Philadelphia, PA, Jan. 5-8, 2017.
• “Digital Storytelling for Social Justice: Displacements of Family and Home” Performative Workshop, American Studies Association (ASA) Conference, Denver, CO, Nov. 19, 2016.
• “Avocado Dreaming: Salvadoran Diaspora, Nostalgia, and Hybridity,” Expanding Latinidad, Emerging Diasporic Communities in Latino USA, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL May 20, 2016.
• “’Entre Mundos/Between Worlds’: Memory-making in the Digital Stories of the Salvadoran Diaspora,”
• 75th Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting (SfAA), Pittsburgh, PA, March 24-28, 2015.
• “Central Americans Were Never Invisible: Digital Stories of the Salvadoran Migration,” Panel “Pa’lante: Envisioning Latina/o Scholarship and Pedagogies for the 21st Century,” Latina/o Studies Conference, (LSA) Chicago, IL, July 17-19, 2014.“Forgetting and Remembering: Diasporic Memories of the Guatemalan Civil War,”
• Panel “Memory and Violence in the Literature of the Latina/o Diaspora,” Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Chicago, IL, May 21-24, 2014.
• “Central American Cultural Contact Zones: Shifting the Lens.” Foreign Service Institute (FSI), George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, United States Department of State, Arlington, VA, March 6, 2015.
• “Traumatic Voyages: War, Diaspora, and Central American Immigration on Film,” Graduate Retention Enhancement at TAMIU (GREAT), Title V Promoting Post-baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA) Program, Texas A&M International Univ (TAMIU), Laredo, TX, Nov. 8, 2013.“Filling in the Gaps: (Post)memory and Haunting in the Central American Diaspora,” Symposia From Coalitions to Comparativism: Practicing Latina/Chicana Studies and Asian/American Studies Now, English Department, University of California, Berkeley, Oct. 25, 2013.

Grants (Selected)

NEH Access Grant for “Home Stories” (digital storytelling project that empowers migrant youth to create and share their stories with the wider public), Co-PIs Ana Patricia Rodríguez and Sheri Parks, Center for Synergy, ARHU, UMD, 2017-2020. ($100,000.00)

“Spanish Heritage Language Research Center, ”New Directions Innovation Seed Grant (DRIF), College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU), UMD, 2014-2015. PI Ana Patricia Rodríguez, Co-PIs Manel Lacorte & Evelyn Canabal-Torres. ($5,000.00)

Foxworth Creative Enterprise Initiative Curriculum Development Grant, “SPAN408i Latina/o Transmigration & Transnationalism,” College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU), UMD, 2014. ($6,000.00)

Fellowship, NEH/CCHA (National Endowment for the Humanities/Community College Humanities Association) Summer Institute “The Maya World: Cultural Continuities and Change in Guatemala, Chiapas and Yucatán,” June 23-August 3, 2002. (International and Local Travel, Accommodations, and Institute Expenses Covered)

Courses Taught  (Selected)

SPAN 798Z U.S. Latina/o Diasporas (Graduate course); SPAN 408G Northern Triangle: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras;

SPAN 408X Central American Diasporas;

SPAN 408L Latina/o Communities and Language Struggles;

SPAN 408i Latino/a Transmigration & Transnationalism (El Salvador);

SPAN 361 Latin American Literatures and Cultures I: From Pre-Columbian to Colonial Times;

SPAN 303 Approaches to Cultural Materials in the Hispanic World;

SLLC 299P Engaging "Glocal" Communities and Languages

External Service and Consulting (Selected) 

Advisory Board Member, Smithsonian Latino Gallery, Smithsonian Latino Center, Washington, D.C., 2017-Present.

Board Member, CARECEN (Latino Resource Center), Washington, D.C., 2015-Present.

Consulting Scholar, Los 30, Performance Project by Artist and Community Activist Quique Avilés, Sponsored by District of Columbia Humanities Council, Washington, D.C., 2010.

Member, PURs (Partners Urban Research), CoRAL Network (Community Research and Learning Network) / Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service, Georgetown University, 2004-05.

Awards, Honors and Recognition (Selected)

• Faculty “Making a Difference” Award, Office of Community Engagement, UMD, 2016. Maryland-DC Campus Compact’s Alan G. Penczek Service-Learning Faculty Award, 2015-16.
• Outstanding Faculty Award, Office of Multiethnic Student Education (OMSE), UMD, 2012.Outstanding Mentor to a McNair Scholar (José Centeno-Meléndez), The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, Summer Research Institute, UMD, 2010.
• Lilly-Center for Teaching Excellence Teaching Fellowship, UMD, 2001-02. ($3,000.00)Community Engagement ProjectsPlease visit my Wix site for highlights of my Community Engagement Projects.