Rate My Professor Erika Almenara

Erika Almenara serves as Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies program in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures (Spanish) from the University of Michigan, obtained in 2015, and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Having joined the University of Arkansas approximately ten years ago, Almenara has advanced through the ranks from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on Latin American cultural studies, emphasizing political, economic, and social realities to enhance students' multicultural competence and critical thinking skills. As Director of the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies program since 2025, which offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, she promotes international relations and interdisciplinary approaches to literature and culture. Previously, she served as Associate Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program in 2024, where she organized events addressing contemporary Latin American issues.

Almenara's research centers on Latin American cultural production, gender violence, and queer/cuir studies, with particular attention to travesti representations, post-hegemony, and gender perceptions in post-conflict societies. Her major publication is the monograph The Language of the In-Between: Travestis, Post-hegemony, and Writing in Contemporary Chile and Peru, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2022. She is currently completing her second book, Literary and Cultural Representations of Social Gender Perception in Post-Conflict Societies, advanced during her Fulbright U.S. Scholar award. Selected peer-reviewed articles include "Trauma y memoria en La sangre de la aurora de Claudia Salazar y Magallanes de Salvador del Solar" (Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2017), "Escritura, travestismo e izquierda en Pedro Lemebel" (Nomadías, 2016), and "Descomposición de la masculinidad peruana en Bioy de Diego Trelles Paz" (Revista Iberoamericana, 2018). Almenara received the Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant for 2022-23, enabling her to lecture and conduct research at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú from March to July 2023. In 2025, she was awarded the Hoyt Purvis Award for leadership in international education. She also secured the School of Art Interdisciplinary Faculty Fellowship in 2026 for the project Healing Terror With Arts. Additionally, Almenara serves as associate editor of Fulbright Chronicles and contributes to the U of A Fulbright Students Association and cultural events, significantly impacting the academic field through scholarly networks and public diplomacy.