Clara Román-Odio is Professor of Spanish and Latin American literature, with a specialty in literature and society in late-twentieth century. Author of Octavio Paz en los debates críticos y estéticos del siglo XX (Galicia, España: tresCtres Editores, 2006), she has published extensively on modern and postmodern aesthetics by feminists of color including the collective volumes Transnational Borderlands in Women's Global Networks: The Making of Cultural Resistance (Román-Odio, Marta Sierra, eds. Forthcoming in Palgrave, 2011) and Global and Local Geographies: The (Dis)locations of Contemporary Feminisms (Letras Femeninas. 33.1, 2007). Her latest book project currently on going, Sacred Iconographies in Chicana Cultural Productions: Feminism and Empowerment in Transnational Networks, analyzes connections among U.S. feminisms, globalization, transnational feminisms, and religious iconography in Chicana cultural productions. Román-Odio is the Director of the Latino/a Studies Concentration at Kenyon and a co-founder of The Kenyon College Transnational Collaborative, an interdisciplinary group of Kenyon faculty and staff interested in pursuing curricular and co-curricular initiatives that explore the intersections of race, class, and gender through transnational and feminist theories and pedagogies. She is an active member of the Asociación Internacional de la Literatura Femenina Hispánica, an association devoted to the study of women's cultural productions in Latin America and Spain, and of NACCS, the National Association of Chicana/o Cultural Studies. Clara was born in Puerto Rico, where she completed her undergraduate degree, and received graduate degrees from Purdue University (M.A.) and The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (Ph.D.). She currently lives in Columbus, OH.

Education

Ph.D. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.A. Purdue University
B.A. University of Puerto Rico (Mayagüez)

Selected Publications

Books

Sacred Iconographies in Chicana Cultural Productions: Feminism and Empowerment in Transnational Networks (Forthcoming in Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Transnational Borderlands in Women's Global Networks: The Making of Cultural Resistance. Clara Román-Odio and Marta Sierra, eds. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Octavio Paz en los debates críticos y estéticos del siglo XX . Santa Comba (A Coruña), España: TresCTres Editores, 2006.

Journal Editions

Global and Local Geographies: The (Dis)locations of Contemporary Feminisms. Román-Odio, Marta Sierra, eds. Letras Femeninas. Vol. 8, summer 2007.

Chapters

"Queering the Sacred: Love as Oppositional Consciousness in Alma Lopez's Visual Art" (in Our Lady of Controversy: Alma Lopez's Irreverent Apparition. Austin, TX: UT Press, 2011)

Articles

"En Estado de Nepantla: Memoria terrorista y visión espiritual en el arte visual de Liliana Wilson." Memoria y Fronteras. Bernardital Llanos, ed. Santiago, Chile. Cuarto Propio (forthcoming, 2011).

"Globalización de-centrada: feminismo transnacional, política cultural y la Virgen de Tepeyac en el arte visual de las chicanas." Creaciones mexicanas y globalización. Patrice Giasson, ed. CONALUTA (forthcoming, 2011)

"Disrobed: The Virgin of Guadalupe and Social Activism in Chicanas' Writing." Pembroke Magazine 40, 2008. 187-200.

"Global-Local Parodies in María Amparo Escandón's Santitos" (forthcoming Letras Femeninas, Winter 2008).

"La Virgen de Guadalupe y el feminismo transnacional de Ester Hernández" Confluencias en México: Palabra y Género. Patricia González Gómez Cásseres y Alicia V. Ramírez Olivares, eds. Editorial: Fomento Editorial, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2007. 299-315.

"Transnational Alliances, U.S. Third World Feminism, and Chicana Mestizaje in Ester Hernández' Visual Art" (under review by Latino Studies, 2008).

"Decentralizing Globalization: Cultural Politics, Transnational Feminisms, and Religious Iconography in Chicana Artistic Productions" (under review by Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, 2008).

"Classroom Assessment of Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Developing a Strategy for College Faculty". Hispania 86.3 (2003): 591-607.

"Julia de Burgos". Dictionary of Literary Biography, Modern Spanish American Poets. María A. Salgado, ed. 290 Modern Spanish Poets. Bruccoli Clark Layman, 2003.

"Chamanismo y sexualidad en la escritura de mujeres hispanas" Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura 18.1 (2002): 59-68.

"'Blanco', a Western Mandala." Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. 24. 3 (2000): 503-15.

"From Writer to Producer: Conflicting Voices in Like water for chocolate." CINE-LIT III: Essays on Hispanic Film and Fiction. Corvallis: Oregon State UP, nd. 84-89.

"Eros retrospectivo / Eros visionario: el sujeto dividido de Piedra de sol." Hispania 79 (March 1996): 28-35.

"Clarividentes, curanderas y los nuevos rituales de la novela latinoamericana." SECOLAS Annals 27 (March 1996): 41-48.

"La narrativa reversible de Julio Cortázar." Studies in Honor of María A. Salgado. Millicent A. Bolden & Luis A. Jiménez, ed. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta, 1996. 163-178.

"Space as a Theme in La Vorágine." Romance Languages Annual. Ben Lawton and Anthony J. Tamburri, eds. Purdue Research Foundation, West Lafayette, IN 1 (1990): 394-396.

"La sutileza poética en El libro de Buen Amor." RILCE. Revista de Filología Hispánica de la Universidad de Navarra 2 (1989): 307-316.

"'Altazor': una nueva perspectiva del creacionismo." Selected Proceedings: The Thirty-Fifth Annual Mountain Interstate Foreign Language Conference. Ramón Fernández-Rubio, ed. Furman University, Greenville, SC (1985): 289-299.

Book Reviews

Chicana Art. The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities (in preparation for Latinos Studies journal).

A Literary and Political History of Post-Revolutionary Mexico: Redefining "The Ideal". (Forthcoming in Hispanófila)

Women Writing Resistance: Essays on Latin America and the Caribbean (The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History 61.4 (April, 2005) 753-754. In PDF via "Project Muse".

From Art to Politics: Octavio Paz and the Pursuit of Freedom 141 Hispanófila (2004):142-144.

Poetas de la palabra hablada 129 Hispanófila (2000): 147-150.

Octavio Paz: Viajero del presente 118 Hispanófila (1996): 94-96.

Courses Taught

SPAN 111: Español 111: Intensive Introductory Spanish
SPAN 322: Gramática, Conversación y Composición Avanzada
SPAN 325-326: Introducción a la Literatura Hispanoamericana
SPAN 344: Contemporary Spanish-American Short Stories
SPAN 354: Spanish-American Poetry Since 1880
SPAN 355: The Literature of National Experience in Mexico
SPAN 371: Gender, Identity, and Power in Women's Literature
SPAN 380: Introduction to Chicana/o Cultural Studies
WGS 242: Transnational Feminisms