Kate Jenckes

Professor Kate Jenckes is a faculty member in the Department of Romance Languages and Literature (RLL) at the University of Michigan since 2005. She holds affiliations with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS), the International Institute, and the Brazil Initiative Advisory Committee. Her research explores the intersections of aesthetics, philosophy, and politics in Chilean and Argentine literature, art, and critical thought, with a notable publication: Witnessing Beyond the Human: Addressing the Alterity of the Other in Post-coup Chile and Argentina (2017).

Education: B.A. in 1992 from Reed College; Ph.D. in 2001 from the University of Oregon.

Research interests emphasize post-coup Latin American cultural production, ethical dimensions of literature, and critical theory. Her work spans authors like Borges, Kafka, Gelman, and Chejfec, analyzing themes of memory, identity, and political resistance.

Professional service includes roles on the LACS advisory board, U-M Senate Assembly, Rackham Executive Board, and Michigan Humanities Emerging Research Scholars Program (MICHHERS). She actively contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives bridging literature, philosophy, and social sciences.

Publications reflect engagement with comparative literature, postcolonial studies, and deconstruction, with a focus on Latin American intellectual history and contemporary critical discourse.