The rationale for organizing this session stems from the need to examine how literature serves as a vital space for resistance and memory, particularly in the context of Latin American and Caribbean women who navigate exile, violence, and loss. The theme is timely and crucial, especially as these voices have often been marginalized in mainstream historical records. Focusing on graduate student scholarship allows for fresh perspectives on these themes, enabling the participants to present cutting-edge research and engage in dialogue that shapes and reflects ongoing academic conversations.
The topic connects with existing scholarship on exile, trauma, and the role of archives in constructing histories. Scholars like Cecilia Vicuña, María Josefina Saldaña, and Ana María Shua have explored how literature can preserve silenced histories, while feminist scholars such as Sandra Castillo and Rachel Haywood Ferreira have focused on gendered experiences of displacement and how women's writing responds to archival erasure. This session expands on these theoretical frameworks by examining how contemporary authors challenge these erasures, reimagining the possibilities for remembering and witnessing the experiences of marginalized individuals, particularly women.
This session will operate within the allotted 60-minute time frame while ensuring ample time for audience engagement and discussion. The session will feature four academic presentations by graduate students, each lasting 12 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of open Q&A. These presentations will provide the foundation for an unstructured discussion where attendees can engage with the content, ask questions, and explore the intersections of exile, gender, and archival resistance. The group discussions will encourage participants to connect the individual research projects and to collectively reflect on how these themes manifest in various forms of literary expression. This format allows for an interactive and dynamic exchange between presenters and the audience, fostering an environment of academic collaboration.
Shweta Gupta’s presentation will focus on Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive, exploring how the novel foregrounds the experiences of displaced children, particularly those migrating from Central America. She will discuss how Luiselli challenges the dominant historical narratives that erase the lives of migrants, particularly children, and how literature can act as an alternative archive for marginalized voices.
Katherine Tilghman will analyze the innovative formal experimentation in Verónica Gerber Bicecci’s Conjunto vacío, focusing on how the novel explores the aftermath of exile and disappearance. Through fragmented storytelling and visual elements, the novel addresses the limits of language in representing absence and the physical, emotional, and archival traces left behind by those who disappear.
Clara Jimenez’s presentation will engage with Sara Uribe’s Antigona Gonzalez and Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding, two texts that confront the violence of disappearance and search for the bodies of the disappeared in Mexico.
Gissel Ruiz’s research will explore the complexities of trauma and care in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory, focusing on the Caco women’s intergenerational experiences of abuse and survival.
This panel reflects a diverse range of voices, bringing together scholars from different regions and disciplines. The panel includes graduate students from various institutions, including the University of Nevada, Pennsylvania, Washington in St. Louis, and Indira Gandhi National Open University. This selection of panelists highlights the global nature of the subject matter, as each presentation explores different geographic and cultural contexts within Latin American and Caribbean literature. The diversity of backgrounds among the panelists enriches the discussion, allowing for a multifaceted exploration of how exile, gender, and archival erasure intersect in the work of contemporary women writers. This diversity ensures a broad range of perspectives and contributes to a more inclusive understanding of the challenges women face in resisting erasure and reclaiming their stories.
In conclusion, this session offers an interdisciplinary exploration of exile, gender, and archival resistance in Latin American literature, providing a platform for graduate students to present innovative research and engage with pressing issues in contemporary literary studies. Through their work, these scholars challenge and reimagine the narratives of displacement, disappearance, and erased voices, fostering a rich and dynamic conversation that will resonate with scholars, students, and activists alike.