About Dr. Barraza
Dr. Vania Barraza is a Professor of Spanish. Her research focuses on Latin American literature and culture, specifically focusing on film, gender, and sexuality studies. She organizes the annual Hispanic Film Festival at the University of Memphis. Barraza is the author of El cine en Chile (2005-2015): Políticas y poéticas del nuevo siglo (Cuarto Propio, 2018), and (In)subordinadas: raza, clase y filiación en la narrativa de mujeres latinoamericanas (RIL, 2010). In collaboration with María Helena Rueda, she co-edited the volume Female Agency in Films Made by Latin American Women (Palgrave Macmillan 2024), and alongside with Carl Fischer, she co-edited Chilean Film in the Twenty-First Century World (Wayne State University Press 2020).
She has also contributed as a guest editor for the Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies, for the Special Issue on Gender and Cinema (47.1: 2021). She currently holds the position of Secretary for the Association of Gender and Sexuality Studies (AGSS) (Asociación de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades – AEGS). Her book El cine en Chile was awarded the Harvey L. Johnson Publication Award 2020, granted by the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies (SCOLAS). Additionally, she has been awarded a fellowship for the Crosstown Arts Residency Program for the spring semester of 2025. Currently, she is exploring the female gaze, aesthetic trends, and visual practices as represented in films directed by Chilean women filmmakers.