Dr. Pablo Zavala's research centers on the fields of Mexican and Latin American literary, visual, and cultural studies, which he explores to further understand and deconstruct identity fictions in the cultural constellation of left-wing politics, State formation, and the printed press. His work is undergirded by Marxist methodologies.
His book, Forging a Mexican People: Collective Subjectivities in Postrevolutionary Print Culture, 1917-1968, is forthcoming with the University of Arizona Press. In it, he draws theoretical analysis from literary, visual, and cultural studies to argue that the illustrated newspapers, magazines, broadsheets, and booklets that circulated in the country during and after the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) constructed a concept of “the people” that challenged the hegemonic formations of identity and the nation. He’s published articles in Southwest Philosophical Studies, Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, and A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos.
At Loyola University New Orleans, he teaches Spanish language as well as Latin American culture courses.
Recent Publications
- Under Review “Benito Juárez in New Orleans: Slavery and Rival Geographies in La Estación del pantano (2022) by YurI Herrera.” Submitted to Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies.
- Under Review “Chicanes in Chicago: Latinx Subjectivities and Decolonial Prints.” Submitted to Review Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture.
- “Maquila Hauntings: Maquilapolis: City of Factories, Global Capitalism, and Spectrality in the Maquiladora Industry on the Mexican Border.” A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos. 22.1 (2024): 213-35. https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/2157/3782.
- “Pueblo y modernidad: subjetividades colectivas y espacios públicos en El Universal Ilustrado y El Machete (1917-1925),” in Las culturas de la prensa en México (1880-1940) (2022). Viviane Mahieux and Yanna Hadatty Mora, eds. Mexico: UNAM (Instituto de Investigaciones Filológicas). 121-50. ISBN: 978-607-30-6119-3.
- “The Perfect Spectatorship: Culture and Criticism in Mexico’s La dictadura perfecta (2014) and ‘Ingobernable’ (2017-),” Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 16.2 (2019): 251-69. https://doi.org/10.1386/slac.16.2.251_1.
Degrees
Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis; M.A., University of Wyoming; B.A., University of Texas, El Paso.
Classes Taught
- American Culture Studies: Latinx Experiences in the U.S.
- Mexican Food Cultures
- Medical Spanish
- Latin American Literatures and Cultures
- Elementary and Intermediate Spanish
- First Year Spanish I and II
Areas of Expertise
Mexican and Latin American literature and visual culture, print media, and border and latinx studies.