Andrea Aramburu-Villavisencio

Girton College

Email: aa2056@cam.ac.uk

I was born and grew up by the sea and under the grey skies of Lima, Peru. I have a Master of Arts in Contemporary Literature, Culture and Theory, from King’s College London (2016-2017), and a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics and Literature, with a major in Hispanic Literature from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2008-2013). I was awarded a summa cum laude (“sobresaliente por unanimidad”) and recommendation for publication for my undergraduate thesis on the Argentinian writer Silvina Ocampo.

My PhD is funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust. I am also the recipient of the Trinity-MCSC Honorary Scholarship.

PhD research

My project looks at Latin American autobiographical and autofictional comics published after 2010 by women and queer artists, to think through the intersections of comics, relationality and affect. I want to argue that comics have the potential to map out “curatorial constellations” which dislocate the category of the subjective by pointing towards its relational and affective embeddedness in a material world.

Research Interests

• Latin American comics studies
• Affect theory
• New materialism
• Visual cultural studies
• Feminist and queer studies

Published works

• Aramburú Villavisencio, Andrea, ““We Must Learn to Speak to Each Other So That We Can Embrace from Afar”: Dodie Bellamy reading Kathy Acker, an account in words and clothes” in Otherness: Essays & Studies 6.1 and 6.2, Ed. by Matthias Stephan. December, 2018 (web)
• Aramburú Villavisencio, Andrea, “Devenir-mapa, devenir-menor, devenir-recuerdo: Las invenciones relacionales de Silvina Ocampo” in Espinela, Revista de la Maestría de Literatura Hispanoamericana de la PUCP (Lima: PUCP, 2018)

Selected conference papers

• Presented paper at the “XVIII Coloquio de Estudiantes de Literatura PUCP (2013-2)”: “El síntoma en Los Objetos de Silvina Ocampo” in the “Narrative from Río de la Plata” table
• Presented paper at The Queer Art of Feeling Conference, Cambridge, UK, May 2019: “Curations of a nepantlera: Kaleidoscopic Bodies, Minor Translations and Affective Becomings in Inés Estrada’s Impatience (2016)”
• Presented paper at IABA Europe, Madrid, Spain, June 2019: “Relational Maps: Affect, Kinship and Relationality in Las ciudades que somos (2018)”
• Presented paper at Comics and the Latin American City, Manchester, UK, June 2019: “Relational Maps: Affect, Kinship and Relationality in Las ciudades que somos (2018)”
• Presented paper at Comics Forum in Leeds, UK, November 2019: “Embodied (cyber)Spaces: Posthuman Materialities in Inés Estrada’s Traducciones (2014)”
• Accepted in TRANSITIONS 9 – new directions in comics studies, London, UK, March 2020: “Curating the Ordinary: Relationality and Affect in Latin American Women’s Autobiographical Comics” [conference postponed due to COVID]
• Accepted in SLAS (Society for Latin American Studies) 2020 (conference cancelled due to COVID) and recipient of the SLAS postgraduate travel grant.
• Conference paper accepted for ICAF (International Comic Arts Forum) 2020 conference [postponed due to COVID] // Participation in ICAF 2020/2021 virtual edition with the blog post: “Walking-with Un día: Ana Paula Machuca’s love letter to Trujillo” (Forthcoming)

Other academic activities

• Attendance to SSASS (Society for the Study of Affect Summer School), Lancaster, United States, 2019
• Attendance to Comics and Travel (Conference), Oxford, UK, July 2019
• Participation in Disturbing Attachments: Queer Theory Reading Group, 2018-2019
• Gates Graphic Novel Reading Group (organisation and attendance, 2019)

Teaching at Cambridge

• Course Supervisor: SP5-Latin American Culture and History (Department of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics) 2019-present
• Undergraduate YAP in Spanish (Department of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics) (2020)
• Bridging Course at Corpus Christi College (September 2020).  I designed a plan and taught the Corpus Christi College Bridging Course (for one week of supervisions for a Spanish student). This was a residential summer school held at Corpus for those of great potential from schools, colleges and neighbourhoods that have not traditionally sent many students to Cambridge.

Other teaching experience

• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Jefe de Práctica, March 2014 – July 2016, Teacher of the practical seminars of “Narrativa” and “Teatro” in the Arts and Humanities General Studies Faculty; “Redacción y Comunicación” (RYC) in the Sciences General Studies Faculty; and “Proyecto de Tesis 1” in the Faculty of Engineering
• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Escuela de Posgrado, Maestría en Estudios Culturales, Teacher, “Seminario de Tesis 1” (2018-1)
• Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Escuela de Posgrado, Maestría en Literatura Hispanoamericana, Substitute teacher for Literatura Fantástica Contemporánea (3 weeks). I gave three seminars on a selection of short stories by Silvina Ocampo; “El absurdo: Arreola y Cortázar”; and “El Sur de Borges y El gaucho insufrible de Bolaño”.

Supervisor: Joanna Page