Languages and Cultures

Dr. Pagán

Dr. Iliana Pagán-Teitelbaum is an Associate Professor of Languages and Cultures at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. She obtained a BA in Latin American Studies at the University of Puerto Rico and a PhD in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. She was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Caribbean Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses on Latin American film, cultural studies, and Spanish language. Her research focuses on cultural representations of inequality and violence in the Americas, as well as the critical discourse analysis of media representations of indigenous peoples from the Andes. She received the Leeway Foundation Art and Change Grant for her film Twin Tongues/Lenguas gemelas, a nonfiction film about the politics of bilingualism and identity (in post-production). She is the faculty advisor for the Latino American Student Organization-LASO and she co-chairs the WCU Innovation in Diversity and Inclusion Grants Council.

Research Interests

• Ethics and Aesthetics of Violence and Inequality
• Contemporary Latin American Film and Literature
• Cinema Studies
• Cultural Studies
• Indigenous Studies
• Caribbean Studies

Courses Taught at WCU

• ESP 309 Latin America on Film
• FYE 100F First-Year Experience: Culture and Communication
• LNC 368 Comparative Cultural Studies
• LNC 503 Cultural Studies
• SPA 101-102 Beginner Spanish I & II
• SPA 201-202 Intermediate Spanish I & II
• SPA 302 Advanced Spanish Grammar and Conversation II 
• SPA 313 América Latina en el Cine
• SPA 456/556 Latin American Short Story
• SPA 456/556 Narratives of Exclusion in Latin American Cinema
• SPA 558 Violence in Latin American Cinema
• SPA 559 Adaptation: Literature to Film in Latin America
• YES 301 Seminar in Youth-led Media and Inquiry

Select Publications

Book Chapters

• "Distorsión en los Andes: violencia cultural y exclusión en el cine contemporáneo." Cine andino: estudios y testimonios. Ed. Julio Noriega and Javier Julián Morales Mena. Galesburg, IL and Lima: Knox College P-UNMSM-Pakarina Ediciones, 2015.
• "Depiction or Erasure? Violence and Trauma in Contemporary Peruvian Film." Interrogating Trauma: Collective Suffering in Global Arts and Media. Ed. Mick Broderick and Antonio Traverso. London: Routledge, 2011. 161-177.

Journal Articles

• “Espejo eurocéntrico: por una estética de la equidad en el discurso audiovisual sobre la mujer indígena y la tecnología.” Ojo que piensa. Revista de cine iberoamericano 14 (2017): 20-43.
• "Desestabilizar la violencia: exclusión y resistencia narrativa en Brasil y República Dominicana" Abehache 7: 2 (2014): 178-191.
• "Sueños malditos: diáspora y globalización violentas en la narrativa dominicana" Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, and Culture. Special Issue: Agency and Intervention in Caribbean Contexts. I & II (2013-2014).
• "Neofavela filmada: violencia y resistencia en la ciudad partida de Cidade de Deus" Badebec: Revista del Centro de Estudios de Teoría y Crítica Literaria 4 (Mar. 2013): 116-146.
• "Glamour in the Andes: Indigenous Women in Peruvian Cinema" Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal 7.1 (Mar. 2012): 71-93.
• "Depiction or Erasure? Violence and Trauma in Contemporary Peruvian Film" Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies24.1 (Feb. 2010): 159-175.
• "El glamour en los Andes: la representación de la mujer indígena migrante en el cine peruano" Revista Chilena de Antropología Visual12.2 (2008): 1-30; revised version reprinted in Crónicas Urbanas 14 (2009): 159-174.
• "Arsenales de odio: violencia invisible en 'O Cobrador' de Rubem Fonseca" El hablador 4 (2004): 76-81.

Global Hispanic Film Festival at WCU

• Founding director.
• The Global Hispanic Film Festival at WCU presents contemporary films about the realities of the Hispanic world in Latin America, Spain, North Africa & Latinos/as in the US every Fall during Hispanic Heritage Month. Free and open to the public! All films are subtitled. #cineWCU
• For more information: https://www.facebook.com/cinewcu

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