Lillian Manzor

Lillian Manzor is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences. She also serves as Faculty Director of UParis. Her academic work focuses on US Cuban theater and performance studies, with particular attention to identity formation, transculturation, and the Cuban diaspora experience.

Her research interests include:

• US Cuban Theater and Performance Studies
• Cuban Diaspora and Migration Studies
• Transculturation and Identity Formation
• Theater Documentation and Digital Archives
• Latin American and Hispanic Literature
• Critical Multiculturalism in Performance

Professor Manzor's scholarly trajectory demonstrates consistent engagement with US Cuban theatrical productions from the 1980s and 1990s, examining how performances navigate complex identity politics between Cuba and the United States. Her recent publications explore evolving landscapes of Latine theater in Miami and Florida, with particular attention to historical connections from cigar factory workers to contemporary Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights. She has developed the Cuban Theater Digital Archive, a significant multimodal resource that preserves and makes accessible Cuban theatrical materials that were previously little known outside the island.

Her notable publications include the critically acclaimed book "Marginality Beyond Return: US Cuban Performances in the 1980s And 1990s" (2022), which provides a comprehensive historical and cultural analysis of US Cuban theater development beyond simplistic exile narratives. Through her work, Professor Manzor challenges essentialist frameworks of Cuban-American identity, instead highlighting hybrid, heterogeneous identities that emerge through performance.

Professor Manzor's contributions bridge academic research with practical documentation efforts, particularly through her leadership of the Cuban Theater Digital Archive, which serves as both a research repository and teaching resource for scholars worldwide. Her work has been instrumental in documenting theatrical productions that have often been overlooked in mainstream narratives about Cuban exile culture, revealing how these performances create "networks of proximity" that challenge conventional understandings of Cuban-American relations.