Dr. Elizabeth Pettinaroli, associate professor of Spanish and chair of Latin American and Latinx Studies at Rhodes, has a new book out titled Ecofictions, Ecorealities and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World (Routledge, 2019), which focuses on works denouncing extractivism in Latinx and Latin American literature, visual and performance arts, and film. She co-edited this volume of critical studies with Dr. Ana María Mutis of Trinity University and Dr. Ilka Kressner of the University of Albany.
Building on Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence,” contributors explore processes of environmental destruction in relation to practices of activism, artistic creation, and cultural production in Latin American and Latinx worlds.
Pettinaroli’s scholarship and teaching at Rhodes include Latin American and Latinx literature and language in cultural contexts, ecocritical studies and spatial studies. She is also the founder and mentor to Memphis Cartonera, which is a cooperative, sustainable publishing house dedicated to promote literacy and bibliodiversity through literature and art.