Dr. Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez has been selected as a 2024–2025 UNCF Mellon Fellow at the National Humanities Center.
 

This prestigious and competitive fellowship appoints a select group of scholars that “represent humanistic scholarship in African American studies; anthropology; archaeology; Asian American studies; East Asian studies; ethnomusicology; gender and sexuality studies; history; history of art and architecture; information studies; languages and literature; media studies; medieval studies; music history and musicology; philosophy; psychology; religious studies; and Slavic studies," among others.

In his research, Dr. Eljaiek-Rodriguez studies cinematic and literary processes of othering and exclusion, particularly as undertaken through representations of monstrosity. He has extensively studied the transformation of the gothic and horror genres in Latin America and how directors and writers use these genres to comment on the politics of the continent. Dr. Eljaiek-Rodriguez has published in English and in Spanish since 2006, with books such as "The Migration and Politics of Monsters in Latin American Cinema" (2018), "Selva de fantasmas. El gótico en la literatura y el cine latinoamericanos" (2017), and the forthcoming "Baroque Aesthetics in Contemporary American Cinema" (2022), among others.

In his native Bogotá, Dr. Eljaiek-Rodriguez began his academic career at the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies Pensar. There, he developed his interest in cultural studies and transdisciplinary work. Since receiving his doctorate from Emory University, Dr. Eljaiek-Rodriguez has worked at universities in the United States such as Lawrence University, The George Washington University, and Savannah College of Arts and Design. In addition, he has taught courses at international institutions such as the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá.

View Dr. Gabriel Eljaiek-Rodriguez's profile.