Faculty and Staff

Constanza Ocampo-Raeder (BA Grinnell College, Stanford University PhD) is an assistant professor in anthropology that specialized in environmental anthropology. She is particularly interested in how people manage local resources and how these activities impact different environments. More specifically her work aims to uncover cultural rules and behaviors that govern resource management practices as well as trace the impact of global conservation and development policies on these systems. Most of her work focuses in Latin America were she has three ongoing fieldsites in Peru (Amazon, Coast, and an Inter-Andean River Valley).  However, she has also worked extensively in different tropical forests and ecosystems around the world (e.g. Belize, Montana, Kenya, Tahiti)

Professor Ocampo-Reader implements a series of qualitative and quantitative methods in her work, some of which are heavily rooted in ecological framework. She teaches a series of courses in environmental anthropology, conservation and development, food and culture, as well as ecological anthropology.

Victor Leão Borges de Almeida (Ph.D., University of Minnesota) teaches Principles of Macroeconomics, Economy of Latin America, and History and Theory of Financial Crises. His research focuses on International Finance and Macroeconomics, with emphasis on the challenges that emerging markets face during sovereign debt crises and renegotiation efforts. Before joining Carleton, he held teaching positions at the University of Minnesota and research positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the International Monetary Fund. In the summer, he enjoys staying active and outside, mainly by playing soccer and biking. In the winter, movies and TV series are his main ally.

Jorge Brioso (Ph.D. City University of New York) teaches twentieth-century Peninsular Literature, Philosophy, and Film at Carleton, as well as Latin American Literature. His main areas of interest are literary theory, philosophy, and aesthetics. His research focuses on the twentieth-century Spanish essay and poetry: Unamuno, Ortega, Machado, and Zambrano, et al.; Latin American poetry and literature: Borges, Casal, Lezama and Virgilio Piñera, et al.; and Political Philosophy: Hobbes, Foucault, Carl Schmitt, et al.

As Director of the Spanish Language Program, Vera teaches and coordinates elementary and intermediate language courses and trains and supervises the Spanish Teaching Assistants. In the past she has taught composition and conversation, as well as courses in Spanish and Latin American literature. She believes that teaching international languages and cultures promotes cultural awareness and empathy to help foster communities in which diversity flourishes. Her teaching is particularly informed by research in intercultural competence as well as critical and social justice approaches to language instruction.

Vera’s research engages contemporary Latin American literature, film and art through an environmental lens, with particular focus on material ecocriticism, gender studies, indigenous ecologies, and environmental justice. Vera has received awards for her scholarly work from the Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica (AILCFH), Feministas Unidas, and the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), and her articles have appeared in the journals Gestos, Confluencia, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, and Letras femeninas. She is also co-founder and Production Manager of the digital humanities project Latam-Films, a bilingual website with critical resources on Latin American women filmmakers. As a Key Researcher in the Humanities for the Environment (HfE) global network, she helped launch the Latin American Observatory and provided the English subtitles for Juan Carlos Galeano’s film El río (The River).

Fernando Contreras is an educator with a profound international background. As a Spanish lecturer at Carleton College, he teaches beginners and intermediate Spanish courses, alongside leading the Tutoring Program for students of Spanish 204 and 205. He holds a master’s in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language and a BA in International Relations. His global experience spans teaching engagements in countries like Mexico, Japan, Russia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.

He’s worked extensively across diverse educational roles, including serving as a Spanish Reader for the Advanced Placement at the Educational Testing Services, coauthoring a specialized Spanish program for North American colleges, and contributing as the President of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in Minnesota.

Fernando’s international scope isn’t limited to academia. His journey includes multifaceted roles: from being a Bilingual Tour Director in Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru, to an External Relations Intern at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. This global perspective and linguistic proficiency underscore his commitment to multicultural education and cross-cultural understanding.

Cecilia is a Chilean-American documentary filmmaker, artist and educator based in Northfield, Minnesota, the occupied ancestral land of the Wahpekute Band of the Dakota Nation. Locally rooted yet globally minded, her work examines notions of home and the immigrant experience while exploring the traces of historical trauma on people and places. Since moving to Northfield in 2010, Cecilia has produced two feature-length documentaries in close partnership with underrepresented groups in town: Making Noise ~ The Story of a Skatepark (2016), developed with the local skateboarders, and Ways of Being Home ~ Between Northfield & Maltrata (2020), made in collaboration with members of the Latinx community in town. Her latest explorations, The Wandering House, The Embroidery Project and The Wandering House ~ Sonic Archive, have sparked collaborations with individuals and organizations inside and outside of Northfield and expanded her practice beyond filmmaking.

Cecilia teaches Intro to Cinema & Media Production (formerly, Digital Foundations), The Essay Film, Documentary Studies, and Cinema and Cultural Change in Chile and Argentina.

Adriana Estill teaches courses on U.S. Latino/a literature and twentieth century American literature, especially poetry. She also teaches in the American Studies program. She has published essays on Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo and recently contributed to the Gale encyclopedia of Latino/a authors with scholarly entries on Sandra María Esteves and Giannina Braschi. Her interest in popular culture has led to published articles on Mexican telenovelas and their literary origins as well as to current research into the perceptions and constructions of Latina beauty in contemporary Latino literature and the mass media. Degrees: Stanford B.A.; Cornell, M.A., Ph.D.

Professor Fisher came to Carleton in 2003, as our first full-time Latin American historian. He offers surveys of Latin American colonial and post-colonial history, as well as seminars on Mesoamerican and Andean society and culture, Mexican nationalism, the Inquisition, and the African Diaspora in Latin America.

Professor Fisher’s research examines the transformation of Cuitlateca, Tepozteca, Nahua, and Purépecha peasant communities in the mid-Balsas Basin of Guerrero, Mexico under Spanish colonial rule (1521-1821). He traces how Hispanic, African, and indigenous migrants were assimilated into local communities, particularly through Catholic lay brotherhoods that were supported by shared agricultural pursuits and stock raising. Through these cultural practices, migrants were made into Indians, just as Indian collective identity and memory were transformed by these same outsiders. Along with numerous articles and chapters on this topic, he is also the co-editor of Imperial Subjects: Race and Identity in Colonial Latin America (Duke University Press, 2009).

I am an archaeologist whose research focuses on marginalized labor, power dynamics, social identity, and foodways practices in colonial Peru. I teach courses on archaeological methods, North and South American archaeology, labor and coercion, ancient urbanism, and food/cuisine.

My research in Peru has primarily examined the effects of Spanish enforced colonial policies in South America, such as tribute (taxes) and forced resettlement (reducción) of native populations. In 2017, I began the Trapiche Archaeology Project to study the effects of colonial mining labor in Puno, Peru, excavating isolated work camps (silver refineries) where indigenous laborers were forced to work and process metals for the Spanish colonial government.

Sarah Lahasky is an ethnomusicologist whose research interests include Latin American music, women and gender studies, and labor studies. Her current project considers women’s musical work in Argentina’s popular and folk music industries. As a tango bassist, Sarah regularly performs with the Charles Gorczynski Tango Quartet and Kingfield Orquesta Típica in Minneapolis, as well as the all-women, Toronto-based ensemble Solidaridad Tango. She is also the current editor for the International Society of Bassist’s peer-reviewed journal, Online Journal of Bass Research. 

I am an interdisciplinary scholar working across literature, cultural studies, and visual and plastic arts. My areas of specialization are gender, race, and the cultural production of Afro and Indigenous communities in 20th- and 21st-century Latin America. My research on Carnivals has examined the role of popular festivities in the construction of Latin American identity.

Silvia López (Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from University of Minnesota) teaches 19th- and 20th-century Latin American literature and culture at Carleton. Her main areas of interest are literary and social modernity in Latin America, cultural and critical theory, Marxism, and the Frankfurt School. Her research focuses on cultural theory and criticism in the work Adorno, Lukács, Benjamin, Garcia Canclini, Schwarz, and Rancière. Together with Christopher Chiappari, she translated Néstor Garcia Canclini’s Hybrid Cultures: strategies for entering and leaving modernity.

Cynthia Marrero-Ramos specializes in critical philosophy of race, feminist philosophy (esp. Latina/x feminisms), and African American philosophy (esp. Caribbean).

Héctor A Melo Ruiz (Ph.D from The University of Notre Dame) is a specialist in Latin American Literature. His area of expertise is 20th-and 21st-century Latin American Narrative. He is currently writing a book about the cultural representation of riots. His research and teaching interests are violence, race, and intellectuals. He teaches courses on labor, contemporary narrative, and urban unrest.

Alfred Montero received his PhD in 1997 from Columbia University. He is the Senior Editor of Latin American Politics and Society, a leading, refereed journal in its field. Prof. Montero’s current research program focuses upon trajectories of polarization and populism in South America. He teaches courses on comparative and international political economy, public policy, Latin American and West European politics, comparative democratization and democratic backsliding, authoritarianism, corruption, and global public health. He is the author of several books, including Brazil: Reversal of Fortune (Polity Press, 2014), Brazilian Politics: Reforming a Democratic State in a Changing World (Polity Press, 2006), and Shifting States in Global Markets: Subnational Industrial Policy in Contemporary Brazil and Spain (Penn State Press, 2002). He is co-editor with David Samuels of Decentralization and Democracy in Latin America (University of Notre Dame, 2004). Prof. Montero has published articles in various peer-reviewed journals such as Comparative Politics, the Journal of Politics in Latin America, West European Politics, the Journal of Development Studies, Latin American Research Review, Studies in Comparative International Development, and Latin American Politics and Society. His current project on polarized populism in South America is the focus of a new book manuscript.

Daniel Williams is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton College. Professor Williams’ work takes a comparative approach to both global and U.S.-based racial boundaries and identities. His current work examines colorblind discourse in the European context (Germany) and its consequences for self-identities and Black European social movements. In the U.S. context, Professor Williams’ work focuses on homeownership and neighborhood belonging in Black and immigrant communities, especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota Metro Area, as well as how local and regional contexts shape racial identities of Latin American and Brazilian immigrants in the U.S. He teaches courses in all of these areas in both Africana Studies and Sociology. He is committed to engagement with local communities as well as global learning through off-campus study and programs.