Education

Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
M.A., University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bachelor in Journalism, Universidad Mayor Real y Pontifícia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, Bolivia

Biography

Jacqueline Alvarez-Ogbesor is associate professor and chair of the World Language and Literature Department (WLL). She teaches courses on literature and culture of Hispanic America and courses of Spanish language at different levels. She is also part of the African Diaspora and the World and the Honors Programs.

Originally from Bolivia, Dr. Alvarez-Ogbesor studied journalism (with concentration in written media) at the Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, where she graduated in 1996. She is currently working on a co-annotated edition of the novel Cuando los combes luchaban, 1953 (When the Combes Used to Fight, 1953), first Equatorial Guinean novel written by Leoncio Evita during the colonial period, and on her second book focused in the Afro Bolivian population and the construction of the colonial discourse. Tentatively entitled Tratamiento discursivo de la población negra en la literatura boliviana (siglo XVII-XX), the work analyzes chronicles, letters, accounts, poetry, plays, novels and short stories.

Select Honors and Awards
- UNCF/Mellon Grant. Faculty Residence Award Recipient, 2014.
- Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education: Globalizing the Curriculum in L.A  Studies, 2013.
- Co-director of the workshop: “Exploring Connection with the African Diaspora.” August 2011.
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Summer Institute, 2008.
- Art and Science Graduate Select Scholar Scholarship. Vanderbilt University, 1999-2003.
- Dissertation Enhancement Grant. Vanderbilt University, 2004.

Courses Taught

African Diaspora and the World I and II
Introduction to the Literature of Equatorial Guinea (Special Topics)
The Universe of the Women of Color in Afro-Hispanic Literature (Honors)
Survey of Spanish American Literature - Modern and Contemporary
Survey of Spanish American Literature - Colonial to late 19^th century
Spanish Composition
Advanced Grammar
Spanish Conversation
Advanced Intermediate Spanish (for honor students)
Intermediate Spanish I, Intermediate Spanish II
Elementary Spanish I, Elementary Spanish II

Research Interests

Colonial Latin America (15th to 19th centuries)
Afro Hispanic Literature
Afro-Andean Literature
Colonial and Contemporary Literature of Equatorial Guinea

Topics of Interest: African diaspora in the Andes, discourses on nation building, race and identities, ethnic relations in colonial historiography and literature, discourse on the colonial subject and the colonial “other,” subversive and subverted discourses.

Publications

Books
De la letra y sus agravios. La letra colonial y la formación de la alteridad afro-andina [s. XVI, XVII y XIX].  Grieving Words: Colonial Writing and the Construction of the Afro-Andean Otherness. 16^th, 17^th, 19^th centuries).  Peter Lang Publishers, 2016.

Book Chapters
“Subversión, ficción, inversión del orden colonial y ambivalencia discursiva en la Verdadera descripción y relación larga de la provincia y tierra de las Esmeraldas, de Miguel Cabello de Balboa.” Autores y Actores del mundo colonial. Edited by Veronica Salles-Reese. Quito: Universidad de San Francisco (2008): 51-60.

Articles
“Transgresión e inversión en el discurso colonial. El sujeto colonial negro en el diario espiritual de la mística afro-peruana Úrsula de Jesús (Perú, siglo XVII).” Revista Iberoamericana. No. 263 (2018).

“El agua como mito fundacional de destrucción y renovación en Jonatás y Manuela y en ‘El Viaje,’” de Luz Argentina Chiriboga. (Foundational Myths of Destruction and Renovation: Reading Jonatás y Manuela and “El Viaje,” by Luz Argentina Chiriboga). College Language Association Journal. Vol. 59. No.1. (2016): 33-46

Adalberto Ortiz. From Margin to Center, by Marvin A. Lewis (2014). College Language Association Journal. Vol. 56. No. 3. (2015): “Formación de la alteridad afro-andina en el discurso legal del Alto Perú. Estudio del proceso criminal contra Francisco Ríos, alias el Quitacapas.” Afro Hispanic Review Nashville:  University of Vanderbilt (Spring 2007).

“Expedientes Judiciales en el Alto Perú: Un espacio de lectura histórico-literaria de la  población negra (Breves referencias al caso del Quitacapas).” Anuario 2005 del Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia (ABNB). Sucre, Bolivia: ABNB (2005).

“Nación and narración: Representación de negros, mulatos y zambos en la novela boliviana decimonónica Juan de la Rosa.” Bolivian Studies Journal. Vol. 12. Illinois: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2005).