Bridget Franco

Professor, Co-Director of Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies

Spanish

Latin American, Latinx, & Caribbean Studies

Contact

Areas of Expertise

Latin American Film Studies Digital Humanities Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) Literature and Memory Studies, Engaged Pedagogy in the Spanish-language Curriculum

Education

Ph.D. University of California - Irvine

Biography

Inspired by the central image in Jorge Luis Borges' famous short story "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan," I like to imagine that while my life and career have had many forking paths, they have also been inextricably linked to my love of Latin American literature, film and cultures, and guided by my passion for better understanding the complex realities of the Spanish-speaking world.

My research and teaching interests are focused on three intersecting and interdisciplinary areas: Latin American Film Studies, Southern Cone Memory Studies, and experiential pedagogy in the Spanish-language curriculum. As a publicly engaged scholar, I am committed to the collaborative creation and democratic distribution of resources through open-access Digital Humanities initiatives. As a teacher, I strive to foment my students' engagement with the Spanish-speaking world through film, literature, visual arts, history, politics and collaborations with our local Latinx communities. And while the forking paths may be endless, I am excited to see where your journey takes you!

Courses

Course Catalog

Latin American Art
Filmmaking in Spanish
Latin American Film
Aspects of Spanish-American Culture
Readings in Latin American Lit
Intermediate Spanish 1
Modern Spanish-American Narrative

Websites

Recent Work

“Archiving, Curating and Teaching Afro-Latin American Film.” Hispania, vol. 107, no. 2, June 2024, pp. 305-322.

“In Conversation with Filmmaker Francisco Huichaqueo.” Cinematic Landscape and Emerging Identities in Contemporary Latin American Film, edited by María Soledad Paz-Mackay and Argelia González Hurtado, Lexington Books, 2024.

The Prado Museum Expansion: The Diverse Art of Latin America. University of North
Carolina Press, September 2023. https://reactingconsortium.org/games/prado.

Franco, Bridget and Manuel Medina. Introduction, “Screening the Indigenous Experience in Contemporary Latin American Cinema.” Out from the Shadows: The Indigenous Presence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Film, edited by Bridget Franco and Manuel Medina, special issue of Diálogo, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 3-6.

“‘My Camera Is Not a Weapon’: Indigenous Erasure in Lucía Puenzo’s Wakolda.” Out from the Shadows: The Indigenous Presence in Twenty-First-Century Latin American Film, special issue of Diálogo, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring 2020, pp. 113-125.

“Using Community-Based Learning to Teach Poetry in the Spanish Language Classroom.” Teaching Modern Latin American Poetries, edited by Jill S. Kuhnheim and Melanie Nicholson, Modern Language Association of America, 2019, pp. 235-251.

Review of A Companion to Latin American Cinema, edited by Maria M. Delgado, Stephen Hart, and Randal Johnson. Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas vol. 15, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 267-270.

“Floating Statues and Streams of Consciousness: Memory Work in Argentina's Río de la Plata and Río Salí.” The Image of the River in Latin/o American Literature, edited by Elizabeth Rivero and Jeanie Murphy, Lexington Books, 2017.

“La política de la locura en las novelas de Ricardo Piglia.” Chasqui: Revista de literatura latinoamericana, vol. 46, no. 1, May 2017, pp. 84-101.

“Cineglos.” Vademécum del cine iberoamericano: Métodos y teorías, edited by Eugenia Afinoguénova, Samuel Amago and Kathryn Everly, special issue of Hispanófila, vol. 177, Spring 2016, pp. 277-282.

“Cinematographic and Political Transitions in La redada and La frontera.” Special issue on Film and Film Studies, Hispania, vol. 98, no. 3, September 2015, pp. 406-420.

“Crossing Pedagogical Boundaries: United States-Mexico Border Simulation Game.” The Border in the Classroom: Approaches to Border Studies, edited by Benita Heiskanin and Andrae M. Marak, special issue of The Middle Ground Journal: World History and Global Studies no. 8, Spring 2014.

“United or Divided States? U.S.-Mexico Border Simulation.” The Hallway, Evans School of
Public Policy and Governance, University of Washington, January 2014. Publication migrated to
Publicases, Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration, June 28, 2021,
https://www.publicases.org/case/united-or-divided-states-u-s-mexico-border-simulation/.

“Una 'redada' literaria y cinematográfica a la memoria tucumana.” Revista Iberoamericana, vol. 78, no. 241, October-December 2012, pp. 983-1000.