Bridget Franco
Professor, Co-Director of Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies
Biography
Inspired by the central image in Jorge Luis Borges' famous short story "El jard铆n de senderos que se bifurcan," I like to imagine that while my life and career have had many forking paths, they have also been inextricably linked to my love of Latin American literature, film and cultures, and guided by my passion for better understanding the complex realities of the Spanish-speaking world.
My research and teaching interests are focused on three intersecting and interdisciplinary areas: Latin American Film Studies, Southern Cone Memory Studies, and experiential pedagogy in the Spanish-language curriculum. As a publicly engaged scholar, I am committed to the collaborative creation and democratic distribution of resources through open-access Digital Humanities initiatives. As a teacher, I strive to foment my students' engagement with the Spanish-speaking world through film, literature, visual arts, history, politics and collaborations with our local Latinx communities. And while the forking paths may be endless, I am excited to see where your journey takes you!
Courses
- Latin American Art
- Filmmaking in Spanish
- Latin American Film
- Aspects of Spanish-American Culture
- Readings in Latin American Lit
- Intermediate Spanish 1
- Modern Spanish-American Narrative
Websites
Recent Work
鈥淎rchiving, Curating and Teaching Afro-Latin American Film.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Hispania, vol. 107, no. 2, June 2024, pp. 305-322.
鈥淚n Conversation with Filmmaker Francisco Huichaqueo.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Cinematic Landscape and Emerging Identities in Contemporary Latin American Film, edited by Mar铆a Soledad Paz-Mackay and Argelia Gonz谩lez Hurtado, Lexington Books, 2024.
The Prado Museum Expansion: The Diverse Art of Latin America. University of North
Carolina Press, September 2023. .
Franco, Bridget and Manuel Medina. Introduction, 鈥淪creening the Indigenous Experience in Contemporary Latin American Cinema.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Out from the Shadows: The Indigenous Presence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Film, edited by Bridget Franco and Manuel Medina, special issue of 顿颈谩濒辞驳辞, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 3-6.
鈥溾楳y Camera Is Not a Weapon鈥: Indigenous Erasure in Luc铆a Puenzo鈥檚 Wakolda.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Out from the Shadows: The Indigenous Presence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Film, special issue of 顿颈谩濒辞驳辞, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 113-125.
鈥淯sing Community-Based Learning to Teach Poetry in the Spanish Language Classroom.鈥&苍产蝉辫;Teaching Modern Latin American Poetries, edited by Jill S. Kuhnheim and Melanie Nicholson, Modern Language Association of America, 2019, pp. 235-251.
Review of A Companion to Latin American Cinema, edited by Maria M. Delgado, Stephen Hart, and Randal Johnson. Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas vol. 15, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 267-270.
鈥淔loating Statues and Streams of Consciousness: Memory Work in Argentina's R铆o de la Plata and R铆o Sal铆.鈥&苍产蝉辫;The Image of the River in Latin/o American Literature, edited by Elizabeth Rivero and Jeanie Murphy, Lexington Books, 2017.
鈥淟a pol铆tica de la locura en las novelas de Ricardo Piglia.鈥 Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana, vol. 46, no. 1, May 2017, pp. 84-101.
鈥淐颈苍别驳濒辞蝉.鈥 Vadem茅cum del cine iberoamericano: M茅todos y teor铆as, edited by Eugenia Afinogu茅nova, Samuel Amago and Kathryn Everly, special issue of Hispan贸fila, vol. 177, Spring 2016, pp. 277-282.
鈥淐inematographic and Political Transitions in La redada and La frontera.鈥 Special issue on Film and Film Studies, Hispania, vol. 98, no. 3, September 2015, pp. 406-420.
鈥淐rossing Pedagogical Boundaries: United States-Mexico Border Simulation Game.鈥 The Border in the Classroom: Approaches to Border Studies, edited by Benita Heiskanin and Andrae M. Marak, special issue of The Middle Ground Journal: World History and Global Studies no. 8, Spring 2014.
鈥淯nited or Divided States? U.S.-Mexico Border Simulation.鈥&苍产蝉辫;The Hallway, Evans School of
Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington, January 2014. Publication migrated to
Publicases, Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration, June 28, 2021,
.
鈥淯na 'redada' literaria y cinematogr谩fica a la memoria tucumana.鈥 Revista Iberoamericana, vol. 78, no. 241, October-December 2012, pp. 983-1000.