Ignacio Aguilo

[Desplazarse más abajo para ver la versión en español]

I am Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Latin American Cultural Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. I am also affiliated with the Centre for Digital Humanities, Cultures and Media.

My research examines the intersections of racial capitalism and cultural production in contemporary Latin America, with a particular focus on the Southern Cone and the Andean region. I work across multiple cultural forms, including literature, visual arts, music, and digital culture, exploring how these media engage with questions of race, class-conscious anti-racism, national belonging, and social justice.

My monograph The Darkening Nation (University of Wales Press, 2018) explores the connections between the 2001 financial meltdown in Argentina and the crisis of narratives of whiteness and national identity by examining literary texts, popular music, artworks and films. I am also the co-editor of Chile desde los estudios culturales and Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

At present, I am Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project Indigenous Youth Subcultures and New Media in Latin America (2023-2025, £250,000), which examines how young Mapuche and Kichwa creators use social media to develop new forms of 'micro' or 'playful' activism that reimagine Indigenous political strategies. I am also serving as International Collaborator on the Fondecyt project Disaster Writing and the Pink Tide in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela (1999-2019) (2024-2027), directed by Gustavo Carvajal.

Previously, I served as Co-Investigator on Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America (CARLA) (2020-2023, £1million), an AHRC-funded project investigating how artists in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia address racial diversity and challenge racism through their work. The project's outputs include an online exhibition, a documentary, and a co-edited book entitled Art and Anti-racism in Latin America (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press). During this same period, I contributed as International Collaborator to the Fondecyt project Disaster Writing in Recent Chilean Fiction (2020-2023).

In my view, a university's essence lies in its role as a community of teachers, researchers, and learners united in their quest for understanding and transforming the world. That is why I prefer not to worship the gods of the modern university cult - Marketing, Recruitment, Big Glossy Buildings, and the Holy University Rankings.

----

Soy Profesor de Estudios Culturales Latinoamericanos y co-director del Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe de la Universidad de Manchester. Mi investigación examina las intersecciones entre el capitalismo racial y la producción cultural latinoamericana actual, con énfasis en el Cono Sur y la región andina. Trabajo con múltiples expresiones culturales, incluyendo literatura, artes visuales, performance y cultura digital, explorando cómo estos medios abordan cuestiones de identidad racial, antirracismo con consciencia de clase, justicia social y pertenencia nacional.

My current research interests include:

• Latin American literary and cultural production
• Critical Race Theory
• Digital Humanities
• Marxism
• Kitsch and the politics of good and bad taste
• Critical Whiteness Studies

PhD students:

• Nicolle Alzamora (in progress): 'Panama as a Point of Transit: Identity and Memory Practices' (with James Scorer).
• Dylan Bradbury (in progress): 'Aural Media as a Tool for the Consolidation of Identity: Mapuche Uses of Sound in Asserting Cultural & Territorial Autonomy in Contemporary Argentina' (with Peter Wade).
• Rodrigo López Martínez (2019-2022): 'Fictional Avant-gardes in Latin American Literature (1973-2015)' (with James Scorer).
• Nicola Runciman (2013-2017): 'Image, Process, Experience: Exploring the Landscapes of Chilean Cinema (2008-2014)' (with Chris Perriam).

I regularly teach the following undergraduate and postgraduate units:

• SPLA30411 The Latin American Short Story
• SPLA20872 Culture and Cold War in Latin America
• SPLA31092 The Politics of Business in Latin America 
• LALC70011 Theories and Methods in Modern Languages and Cultures

I contribute to the following units:

• SPLA10410 Cultures of the Hispanic World
• SPLA10420 Themes in Spanish and Latin American Studies
• ELAN60362 Border Crossings: Comparative Cultures of Diaspora
• LALC61052 Popular Music and Identity