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Dr Denisse Lazo

  • Lecturer in Hispanic Studies
  • Research
  • Year Abroad Coordinator for Spanish

Office

Miller G17

Building location

Miller building

Areas of interest

  • The politics of fiction
  • Narrative and film form
  • Feminist political theory
  • Feminist film theory
  • Latin American gender studies
  • Ethnographic approaches to Latin American cultural studies
Before moving to the academia, I worked for nearly 10 years at the Gender Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal). There, I collaborated with various research projects that explored the status of women in Latin American societies, hence my interest in interdisciplinary views and contributions from the humanities and social disciplines.

My research focuses on two main strands. On the one hand, I investigate the interdisciplinary relationship between fiction and politics, with especial attention to representations of the political status of women in the Latin American context. My approach acknowledges a dynamic dialogue between fiction, ideology, and a certain social imaginary, and it incorporates historical, political, and cultural perspectives. On the other hand, I am keen to explore ethnographic approaches to Latin American cultures through mixed research methods, with special attention to the political and cultural value of food and questions around domestic labour in Latin America. I have also conducted ethnographic research into certain psycho-affective factors involved in the learning of a foreign language with an emphasis on a broader understanding of the question of interculturality.

I am currently completing my first monograph that examines the more recent narrative fiction of the Chilean writer Diamela Eltit (1949-) and offers a socio-political reading of the literary strategies that her work employs to dialogue with the Chilean post-transition context.

I welcome enquiries concerning research supervision in any of my areas of research interest.

Teaching

Teaching

I teach and convene: 

  • SP1L1 'Beginners Spanish Language'
  • ML3LMB ‘Modern Languages for Management and Business’ (Spanish).

I co-teach in the following culture modules:

  • SP1MSLA ‘The Making of Modern Spain and Latin America’.
  • SP1SLAC ‘Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Culture’.

Academic qualifications

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Modern Languages (Latin American literary and cultural studies), University of Oxford.
  • Master of Studies in Women’s Studies, University of Oxford.
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Gender Studies and Public Policies, Universidad de Chile.
  • Licenciatura en lengua y literatura inglesas, Universidad de Chile.

Publications

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