José Carlos Diaz Zanelli

José Carlos Díaz Zanelli earned a Ph.D. in Latin American literature and culture from Rutgers University and has previously worked at Trinity College and the University of Pennsylvania. His work intersects indigenous studies and environmental humanities with focus in Latin America. Diaz Zanelli's current monograph, Insurgent Veins, and the collective volume he co-edits, Worlding Latin America, are currently under contract. His scholarly production can be found in Modern Language Notes, Comparative Literature Studies, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, América Crítica, and Transmodernity. Diaz Zanelli is currently working on two projects. In one, he explores how Indigenous novels provide a reading of the ideological evolution of anticolonial movements in Latin America. The other examines how contemporary Indigenous ecological thinking recreates post-extractivist imaginaries and exposes the limitations of Western environmentalist reasoning when applied to Indigenous settings.

Research Interests

Latin American Indigenous literatures; Mesoamerican and Andean cultures; Indigenous cinematic production; Abiayala movement; Decolonial Critique; Latin American Marxisms; Environmental Humanities

Distinctions

• Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, 2023-2024
• Faculty Research Grants, Trinity College, 2022-2023
• School of Graduate Studies and Louis Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2022
• Institute for World Literature Summer Fellowship, Comparative Literature Program, Rutgers University-Harvard University, Summer 2022
• Doctoral Student Academic Advancement Support, Rutgers University, 2021
• Excellence Fellowship, Rutgers University, 2019-2020
• Off-campus Dissertation Award, Rutgers University, Summer 2019
• Center for Latin American Studies Research Grant, Rutgers University, 2018- 2019
• Adolfo Snaidas – Graduate Students Essay Prize, Rutgers University, 2018
• Finalist in the Salwan National Journalism Award, Oxfam International and the Peruvian Vice-Ministry of Interculturality, 2014

Select Publications

• “Reframing Authorship in Abiayala: Marisol Ceh Moo’s Authorial Construction and Novelistic Production.” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 61, No. 4
• “Indigenista Global Anxiety: Culture, Economy, and Indigeneity in the World.” MLN-Hispanic Issue, Vol. 138, No. 2
• “Provincianos de este mundo: las políticas culturales de Arguedas y Cortázar en la literatura mundial.” Letras, Vol. 94, No. 138
• “Writing Machu Picchu: Epistemological Extractivism and the Citadel Through the Lens of Indigenismo Cusqueño.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4
• “Building Muxeninity: Identity, Gender/Native Performance, and Family in Three Documentaries.” Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, Vol. 18, No. 3

Professional Affiliations

Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA)
American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)

Appointed to the Faculty

2024

Educational Background

Ph.D., Rutgers University
M.A., Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
B.A., University of San Martin de Porres, Lima, Peru