Patricia Vilches
I was born and raised in Viña del Mar, Chile. Most of my adult life has been spent in the United States, where I earned my degrees in Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, specialising in Spanish and Italian. My primary languages are Spanish and English; I am also fluent in Italian and intend to achieve modest proficiency in French. I gained tenure and the rank of Professor at Lawrence University, USA, as a faculty member in Spanish and Italian. For six years, I was a Scholar in Residence at Harlaxton College in the United Kingdom, which I had come to know from my first academic appointment at the University of Evansville.
My research interests involve the cultural history of Latin America, literary studies, space studies, and visual studies, with a specific focus on the momentous historical events and circumstances of the mid-twentieth century. This connects to my deep interest in nineteenth-century Chile and nation-formation, and the evolution and continuity of social and cultural attitudes and upheavals from that time into the present day. From this perspective, I analyse transatlantic links and influences of major continental thinkers and authors on the development of Chilean national literature and identity.
Degrees
PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures. University of Chicago
MA in Romance Languages and Literatures. University of Chicago
BA in Italian. Department of Italian and Hispanic Studies. University of Illinois at Chicago
Honours
Summer Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute, Northwestern University
Summer Fellow, Italian Cultural Institute, Università per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy
Scholar in Residence, Harlaxton College, UK
Teaching Fellow. Florence and London Program. Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM)
Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Evansville
Major Awards and Prizes
National Hispanic Scholarship Fund, University of Chicago,
Indiana Humanities Council: Hispanidad (with Ann Baker)
Academic Subject(s)
Literary Studies, Space Studies, Cultural History, Visual Studies, Spanish and Italian literatures and languages
Specific Research interests
Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, and the Chilean New Song,
Transatlantic Studies (political treatises and fiction of Machiavelli, Cervantes’ Don Quijote, 19th-century Chilean prose, with emphasis on Alberto Blest Gana)