معرفی
Debra Ann Castillo holds the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship and Emerson Hinchliff Professorship of Hispanic Studies at Cornell University, where she is Professor of Comparative Literature and director of the Cornell Migration Studies minor. Affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences, she serves in the Comparative Literature department and participates in Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Latina/o Studies programs. A past president of the Latin American Studies Association, she has received Cornell's highest teaching honor for excellence in undergraduate instruction.
Her research centers on contemporary narrative from the Spanish-speaking world (including the U.S.), gender studies, cultural theory, and performance. She actively bridges academia and community through projects like Teatrotaller theater productions and collaborations with the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County and No más lágrimas. Her work consistently explores migration, border studies, and Latinx cultural expression, integrating artistic practice with scholarly inquiry.
Recent publications reveal interdisciplinary engagement with urgent global themes: pandemic-era pedagogy (Engaged Scholarship and Teaching in COVID Times, 2024), border politics (Centering Borders, 2022), and speculative futures (South of the Future, 2020). Her scholarship spans Latin American literary analysis, horror studies, and feminist theory, often examining how cultural production responds to violence, displacement, and identity.
Her sole major award is the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship. She has held leadership roles in the Latin American Studies Association and Asociación de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades, and serves on editorial boards including the Latin American Literary Review.
Castillo has mentored over 130 graduate students, chairing 60+ committees, with alumni now teaching globally from Kolkata to Buenos Aires. Her NY State Council on the Arts-funded theater project Diamantina Rosa (2022-24) exemplifies grant-supported community-engaged work. She co-edits academic series like Publicly Engaged Scholars (Cornell University Press) and serves on prize committees for Fulbright and NEH.
She directs the internationally touring Teatrotaller theater collective, which has performed in 15+ countries since 1993. Current collaborations include the Aguakinesis water-themed performance project with Mexican partners and microteatro festivals through the Central New York Humanities Corridor. Her ¡Cultura! Ithaca initiative fosters local cultural exchange through educational artistic activities.
