Rate My Professor Ruben Medina

Rubén Medina is a distinguished poet, translator, and professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has taught since 1991. Born in Mexico City in 1955, he co-founded the neo-avant-garde Infrarealist movement in the late 1970s before immigrating to the United States in 1978. Medina earned his Ph.D. in Latin American literature from the University of California, San Diego. He previously served as chair of the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and as director of the Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies Program from 2001 to 2003. Affiliated with programs such as Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies and the Center for Visual Cultures and Performance Studies, Medina has made significant contributions to literary scholarship and pedagogy.

Medina's research and teaching center on Mexican and US Latinx literature and culture, continental connections, film studies, Neo-avant-garde movements, and Mexican migration to the United States. He has authored scholarly monographs such as Autor, autoridad y autorización: Escritura y poética de Octavio Paz (Colegio de México, 1999) and Genealogías del presente y del pasado: Literatura y cine meXicanos (Lima-Berkeley, 2010). His poetry collections include Báilame este viento, Mariana (1980), Amor de Lejos … Fools’ Love (1986), and Aquel Quetzalcoatl se fue pal’ norte (2018). Medina has edited key anthologies on Infrarealism, including Perros habitados por las voces del desierto: poesía infrarrealista entre dos siglos (multiple editions from Editorial Aldvs, 2014; Fondo Editorial Cultura Peruana, 2015; Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León / Ediciones Matadero, 2016; LOM Ediciones, 2018). He co-edited a special issue on the Infrarrealistas for Chicago Review (2017) and produced translations such as Memorias de una beatnik by Diana Di Prima (Matadero-UNAM, 2020) and Una tribu de salvajes improvisando a las puertas del infierno with John Burns (Aldvs, 2012). Recent works include The Science of Sadness / La ciencia de la tristeza, edited and translated with Lázaro B. Medina (Matadero and Ediciones norteadas, 2023). Medina received the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry (1981) and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2021).