Professor Duchesne-Winter’s current research project addresses the cosmopolitics of writing in the context of emerging discussions on the global ecology of the Anthropocene. He has recently researched the Amerindian literary movement in the Guajira peninsula, the ancestral territory of the Wayúu people, which spans northern coastal areas of Colombia and Venezuela, and on the Watunna, the mythological cycle of the Yekuana people in the upper Orinoco river.
His ongoing research includes work with indigenous expressions in the Colombian Amazon. Another aspect of his research and teaching is the convergence of contemporary fantastic literature with Amerindian ontologies.
His writings explore the intersection of theoretical reflection and political thought in contemporary literature. Juan Duchesne-Winter is the Director of Publications of the Instituto Internacional de Literaturas Iberoamericanas (IILI) and the Institute’s journal, Revista Iberoamericana, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh.
He has recently researched the emergence of an Amerindian literary movement in the Guajira peninsula, the ancestral territory of the Wayúu people, which spans the northern coastal areas of Colombia and Venezuela. His ongoing research concerns include the convergence of Amerindian multinaturalism and perspectivism with eccentric writing in Latin America.
Professor Duchesne-Winter has led an active role as a public intellectual in Puerto Rico, where he chaired the Department of Spanish (discourse and language) at the University of Puerto Rico’s main campus in Río Piedras. He has participated in various cultural programs on that country’s public television and radio, where he co-directed the postmodern debate series Radio Alicia, and he is currently a regular contributor to the cultural online magazine published in San Juan, 80 grados.
He co-founded the independent journals Postdata, Nómada, and Hotel Abismo. He is affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Degrees
- PhD, State University of New York - Stony Brook
- MA, University of London - King's College
Selected Publications
- Caribe, Caribana: cosmografias literarias (2015)
- La guerrilla narrada, acción, acontecimiento, sujeto (2010)
- Comunismo Literario: inscripciones latinoamericanas (2009)
- Del príncipe moderno al señor barroco: la república de la amistad en Paradiso, de José Lezama Lima (2008)
- ‘Equilibrio encimita del infierno’: Andrés Caicedo y la utopía del trance (2007)
- Fugas incomunistas (2005)
- Ciudadano insano (2000)
- Política de la caricia (1996)
- Narraciones de testimonio en América Latina (1995)
Areas of Specialization
- Twentieth Century Latin American Literature
- Latin American Cultural Studies
- Postmodern Studies
- Intersection of Theory and Politics in Literature