Diana Aramburu

EDUCATION

PhD in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies (with honors)

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

2016- 2021: Assistant Professor

2021 - present:  Associate Professor of Spanish, UC Davis.

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

20th-21st-Century Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures; Motherhood Studies; Decolonial and Crisis Fiction; Contemporary Spanish and Caribbean Crime Fiction; Cinema and Media Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Graphic Narratives; Illness Narratives; Transatlantic Studies

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS:

BOOKS

2019:   Resisting Invisibility: Detecting the Female Body in Spanish Crime Fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (May 2019). Winner of the 2017 Premio Victoria Urbino por Monografía Crítica from the Association of Gender and Sexuality Studies (AEGS).

2022:   Crisis Unleashed: Crime, Turmoil, and Protest in Hispanic Literature and Visual Culture, edited by Diana Aramburu and Nick Phillips, Minnesota: Hispanic Issues On Line. https://cla.umn.edu/hispanic-issues/online/crisis-unleashed-crime-turmoil-and-protest-hispanic-literature-and-visual-culture

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES AND CHAPTERS: 2019-2025
 

2025:     “Reclaiming Agency in the Cesarean Birth Story: Reading Birth Pleasure in the Colombian
Childbirth Anthology, Partos.” Jornal of the Motherhood Initiative 16 (Spring/ Fall 2025): pp. 241-256.

2025:    “Rewriting Childhood Trauma: Healing in Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro’s Lesbian Crime
Fiction.” Special Issue: Fifty Shades of Latin American Noir: Alternative Models of Criminality and Detection. Ámbitos Feministas 13(2025): pp. 41-58.

2024: Aramburu, Diana and Jessica Rodrigues Poletti. “Tailing a Crime Fiction Outlaw:
Celebrating Erotic Agency in Isabel Franc’s Literary Corpus.” Serial Authorship and New Directions in Spanish Female Detective Fiction, edited by Melissa Stewart and Inma Pertusa-Seva, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 2-26.

2024:     “Más que una amante: una revaloración del papel de Charo en la serie Pepe Carvalho de
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán.” Revista de literaturas modernas 54.1 (2024), pp.17-37.

2023:   “Defying Survivorship: María Hernández Marti and Javi de Castro’s Que no, que no me muero: y si me muero no es el fin del mundo.” ConSecuencias 4.1 (2023), pp. 5-20.

2023:   “A Feminicide Vocation?: Examining the Gender Violence Crisis in Ana María Fuster Lavín’s La marejada de los muertos y otras pandemias.” In ¡Vivas nos queremos!: The Femicide and Gender Violence Epidemic in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora, edited by Diana Aramburu and Tania Carrasquillo Hernández, CENTRO Journal 35.2 (Summer 2023), pp. 291-312.

2023:   Aramburu, Diana and Tania Carrasquillo Hernández. “From Victimization to Feminist Revolution: Performing Decolonized Bodies as Acts of Collective Rebellion in Puerto Rico.” In ¡Vivas nos queremos!: The Femicide and Gender Violence Epidemic in Puerto Rico and the Diaspora, edited by Diana Aramburu and Tania Carrasquillo Hernández, CENTRO Journal 35.2 (Summer 2023), pp. 7-29.

2022    “‘Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Cold’: The ‘mare defensora’ in Teresa Solana’s ‘Feina feta no fa destorb’ and Empar Fernández’s ‘El dia que vaig perdre el món de vista.’” In Crisis Unleashed: Crime, Turmoil, and Protest in Hispanic Literature and Visual Culture, edited by Diana Aramburu and Nick Phillips, Hispanic Issues On Line 29, pp. 142-159.

2022    Aramburu, Diana and Nick Phillips. “Introduction: Rethinking Crime Fiction in Times of Crisis: A Multinational Perspective.” In Crisis Unleashed: Crime, Turmoil, and Protest in Hispanic Literature and Visual Culture, edited by Diana Aramburu and Nick Phillips, Hispanic Issues On Line 29, pp. 1-21.

2021    “Celebrating Erotic Autonomy: Decolonizing Desire in Vanessa Vilches Norat’s ‘Del dulce olor de sus pechos.’” Confluencia Volume 36. 2 (Spring 2021): 103-115.

2021    “Exposing the Monstrous Double: The Body in Crisis in Meritxell Bosch’s Graphic Autobiography.” Women in Transition: Crossing Boundaries, Crossing Borders, edited by María-José Blanco and Claire Williams, Routledge, pp.  26-40.

2021    “‘El Estado opresor es un macho violador’: Performing Strategic Responses to Rape and Femicide in Anna Maria Villaonga’s ‘Las vergüenzas’ and Susana Hernández’s ‘El hombre del espejo.’” Ámbitos Feministas 10 (Winter 2021): 7-25.

2020    “Politicizing Vulnerability: Representing a Parental Crisis in Empar Fernández’s Mauricio Tedesco Stories.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 54.3 (October 2020): 703-723.

2020    “Reading from the Lesbian Detective Body: Queering Pleasure and Pain in Clara Asunción García’s Cate Maynes Novels.” Spanish Women Authors of Serial Crime Fiction: Repeat Offenders in the 21st Century, edited by Inmaculada Pertusa-Seva and Melissa A. Stewart, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 152-175.

2020    “Searching for Answers in Fiction?: Examining the Femicide and Gender Violence Crises in Literature Courses.” Hispania 103.3 (September 2020): 315-323.

2019    “Las caras invisibles de Barcelona: reescribiendo los espacios de la delincuencia en las novelas gris asfalto de Anna Maria Villalonga.” Papeles del crimen: mujeres y violencia en la ficción criminal, edited by María Xesús Lama, Elena Losada, and Dolores Resano, Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, pp. 91-102.

2019    Aramburu, Diana and Jeffrey K. Coleman. “Special Focus Introduction. Set Up and Shut Out: Immigration and Criminality in Contemporary Spanish Fiction.” Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 43.2 (June 2019): Article 5. doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.2101

2019    “The Mother Narrative Transformed: Criminalizing the Immigrant Mother in Jordi Sierra i Fabra’s “Barrios altos.” Studies in 20th & 21stCentury Literature 43.2 (June 2019): Article 11. doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.2047

Forthcoming: 

2026: “Teaching Hurricane María: From Chaos and Crisis to Healing and Resistance in Contemporary Puerto Rican Fiction.” Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature, forthcoming.

2026: “Between the Medical and the Maternal: Examining Prenatal Care in Recent Pregnancy Graphic Narratives.” Graphic Mothers: From Underground Comix to Autographics, edited by Marina Bettaglio, Demeter Press, forthcoming.

2026:   “A Curvy Revolution: Celebrating the Curvaceous Female Body in #Curvy by Covadonga D’lom and FlavitaBanana.” Feminine Plural: Women in Transition in the Luso-Hispanic World, edited by María-José Blanco and Claire Williams, Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing series, Peter Lang.

2026: “Protesting through Horror: From Silence to Resistance in the Contemporary Puerto Rican
Birth Story.” Mother Horror. Demeter Press.

Works in Progress

Examining the madre rebelde: A Transatlantic Study of Prenatal, Birthing, and Postpartum Care in Contemporary Hispanic and Latinx Fiction (book project)

What is Your NICU?: Redefining the NICU Experience from a Maternal Perspective, edited by Diana Aramburu, Lisa Ludden Perry, and Kathy Mantas, Demeter Press, 2027.

Between Bodies: Illness and Transformation in Hispanic Women’s Graphic Narratives (book project)

Recent Courses:

 SPA 230 (graduate seminar): Decolonizing Puerto Rico through Fiction: Contemporary Puerto Rican Fiction in the Aftermath of Hurricane María 

Spanish 159: After Hurricane María: From Chaos to Rebellion in Contemporary Puerto Rican Fiction 

Spanish 224 (graduate seminar): Examining the madre rebelde: A Transatlantic Study of Maternal Narratives in Contemporary Luso-Hispanic Fiction

Spanish 159: Writing Crime with a Feminine Twist: From Victimization to Feminist Empowerment in Contemporary Latin American Fiction

Spanish 142: Responding to 2008: Examining Crises in Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Visual Culture

Spanish 224 (graduate seminar): Gender Violence, Victimhood, and Feminist Resistance in Contemporary Luso-Hispanic Fiction

Spanish 139: Contemporary Theater

Spanish 224 (graduate seminar): Between Bodies: Examining Illness Narratives in Contemporary Hispanic Literature and Film

Spanish 100: Principles of Hispanic Literature and Criticism

Spanish 137: Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction: Femicrime

Recent Committee Service:

L&S Committee on Inclusive Excellence, Co-Chair

Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Research Support Committee

Child and Family Care Administrative Advisory Committee (CFCAAC)

Inclusive Excellence, Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Honors and Awards:

•  Adela Zamudio 2024 Essay Prize, Feministas Unidas.
• 2024 Dean’s Faculty Fellow (2024-2027)
• 2024 IDARE Vision Grant: Building Resilience L&S Unites
• 2024 Davis Humanities Institute Research Cluster
• 2024 Revitalization Research Program, UC Davis
• Accelerate Fellow Program, Center for Educational Effectiveness, UC Davis
• Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship, The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• Award for Excellence in Service to Graduate Students, UC Davis Graduate Student Association 2018-2019, UC Davis
• Davis Humanities Institute Faculty Research Seminar
• Faculty Appreciation Certificate, Educational Opportunities Program, UC Davis
• Premio Victoria Urbino por Monografía Crítica, Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica