Bridget Franco

Professor Bridget Franco

Professor, Spanish
Co-Director, Latin American, Latinx and Caribbean Studies
Ph.D., University of California - Irvine
 

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

 

Contact Information

Email: bfranco@holycross.edu
Office Phone: 508-793-2291
Office: Stein 412
Box: 211A

About me

Before arriving at Holy Cross, I worked in the study abroad office and special collections department at the University of Notre Dame, I applied to a doctoral program in Philosophy in Colorado, I taught Spanish at a small private college in Southern California, I tutored high school students, and I earned my Ph.D. in the Spanish & Portuguese Department of the University of California, Irvine. 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 career has had many forking paths, it has always been inextricably linked to my love of Latin American literature 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 are endless, I am excited to see where your journey takes you! 

Courses

  • SPAN 201 & 202 - Intermediate Spanish 1 & 2
  • SPAN 301 - Spanish Composition & Conversation
  • SPAN 304 - Aspects of Spanish-American Culture
  • SPAN 305 - Introduction to Textual Analysis
  • SPAN 308 - Readings in Latin American Literature
  • SPAN 312 - Filmmaking in Spanish
  • SPAN 399 - Latin American Art 
  • SPAN 405 - Modern Spanish-American Narrative
  • SPAN 420 - Latin American Film
  • MONT 106G; 107G - Latin America through Cinema; Diverse Art in Latin America

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.

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