Elisa completed her PhD in History at the European University Institute. She was a Research Fellow in Hispanic Studies at King’s College, Cambridge before joining King’s London in 2000.

Elisa's research explores Latin American cultural production across the colonial, nineteenth-century, and contemporary periods, with a particular focus on gender, indigeneity, postcoloniality, and literary history. Building on her seminal work on colonial Mexico and C19th Peruvian literature, she examines how texts negotiate the legacies of empire, nation-building, and marginal identities. More recently, she has investigated transnational and diasporic Latin American writing, exploring questions of language, cultural memory, and Latinx identities across time and space. Her current work develops historically grounded approaches to Latinx and Latin American studies, tracing the long-term effects of coloniality on literary and cultural forms.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Historicity and notions of the colonial in Latin American literature and culture
• Ideas of the Andean and of indigeneity more generally in Latin America
• The Politics of Gender in Latin American cultural production
• Notions of the transnational and multilingual in contemporary Latin American culture

Elisa has supervised doctoral students singly and also jointly with History, with English (including their creative writing PhD) and with the AHRC Project Language Acts and Worldmaking, evidencing the interdisciplinary nature of her expertise. She would welcome any PhD students interested in Colonial, Nineteenth Century and Contemporary Latin American literature; the relationship between historiography and fiction in Latin American literature; Theories of post-colonialism in Latin America; Gender Studies; Indigenous Studies and Cultural Studies more generally.

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Teaching

As a teacher of Modern Languages, Elisa is committed to the theory and practice of a discipline that by its very nature makes students reflect upon questions of identity and diversity. At King´s Elisa teaches a number of undergraduate courses on colonial, nineteenth century and contemporary Latin American literature and culture, including one on the importance of History as a discourse in Latin American fiction and one on the politics of Gender in Latin American culture. She also contributes to the flagship ‘Global Iberias’ core module. Her graduate teaching concentrates on the nineteenth and twentieth century narrative and critical methodologies from the South, and she collaborates with colleagues on co-taught modules on these subjects. Elisa is a co-creator of an innovative Service Module in the Department which involves extensive collaboration with external partners (schools, artists and activists).

Expertise and public engagement

Elisa leads research-informed public engagement activities that bring Latin American culture, Latinidad, multilingualism and cultural identity into conversation with diverse audiences beyond the university. Her work includes film screenings and festivals, public talks, expert panels, and workshops with filmmakers, artists, schools and community organisations. Through collaborations with cultural practitioners and Latin American communities in London she create spaces for dialogue, knowledge exchange and community participation. Her current impact project, 'Latinidad in London' explores questions of belonging, culture and multilingualism through collaborative public engagement.

She appeared on the BBC podcast series 'Human Intelligence' talking about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a C17th Mexican polymath (poet, scientist, theologian and nun) and her relevance and impact on contemporary Latin American and Latinx culture. 

Selected publications

• "The Andean Gothicas Local form and Global Story: How Contemporary Latin American Women Writers are (Re)writing Indigeneity." Mistral: Journal of Latin American Women’s Intellectual & Cultural History 4 (1): 17-31, 
• Latinx Literature in Transition, 1444–1886 Volume 1 Cambridge University Press,Edited with Kenya C. Dworkin y Méndez.