Department of World Languages & Cultures

Elisa Rizo, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Program/s

Spanish

Interests

Elisa Rizo received a B.A. in Hispanic Literatures from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (I.T.E.S.M., 1993); a Masters Degree in Hispanic Literatures from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1996) and a Ph.D in Latin American Literature from the same institution (2002). Before joining the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State, she was an assistant professor at Westminster College in Fulton, MO.

She has published and presented scholarly papers dealing with the literature and culture of Equatorial Guinea, Mexico and the African diaspora of contemporary Latin America. Upcoming projects include comparative analysis of literary expressions by writers of the African diaspora in Spanish America and by authors of Spanish-speaking Africa. She is also continuing her research on official discourses related to Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples in Mexico.

Selected Publications

Refereed Articles and Chapters in Print or Forthcoming

“Políticas culturales, la formación de la identidad hispano-africana y El hombre y la costumbre” MARGES, Special Issue: Postcolonial Literatures in Africa and Latin America. University of Perpignan, France. (forthcoming, 2009)

“Teatro guineoecuatoriano contemporáneo: el mibili en ‘El fracaso de las sombras’,” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 7.3 (2006): 289-310.

“En torno a la obra de Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel,” Hispanic Research Journal 6.2 (2005): 175-178.

Interviews in Refereed Journals

“Diálogo entre guineoecuatorianos: una conversación con Donato Ndongo y Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel,” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 7.3 (2006): 259-270.

Book Reviews in Refereed Journals

“El metro” by Donato Ndongo Bydyogo. PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association, 12, Fall (2008): 84-89.

Refereed Proceedings

“Escritura dramática como laboratorio de epistemologías”. De Guinea Ecuatorial a las literaturas hispanoafricanas. Madrid: Verbum, 2009. (forthcoming,2009)

Invited publications (Magazines Abroad)

“El espacio femenino como centro y margen de la participación cívica en el teatro guineoecuatoriano,” PALABRAS: Revista de la Fundación España-Guinea Ecuatorial, Madrid, España, Vol. 1. No. 1. 2009. (1,400 copies, half to be sold in Spain, half to be distributed in Equatorial Guinea). (forthcoming, 2009)

“Afro-México, una historia de silencios y negación,” Publication of the Spanish Cultural Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. (forthcoming, 2009)

Grants

2008

ISU, Foreign Travel Grant

ISU, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Small Grant Award

ISU, Council for International Programs Grant

Guest Seminar Faculty. NEH Summer 2008 Institute on “The Literature of Equatorial Guinea: A Pedagogical Perspective.” July.

Awards

Dean’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Westminster College, 2006.