Nhora Lucía Serrano, Ph.D.
Director, Academic Technology, Teaching, and Research Services
Burke Library, First Floor
315-859-4493
nserrano@hamilton.edu
Originally from Colombia, Dr. Nhora Lucía Serrano serves as Hamilton College's Director of Academic Technology, Teaching, and Research Services, where she leads the College's work at the intersection of libraries, technology, and teaching and research support. She is also a trained Early Modern Comparative Literature scholar, Lecturer of Literature and Creative Writing, and former Professor of Comparative Literature, with research spanning Digital Humanities, libraries, the History of the Book and Print Culture, Visual Studies (graphic narratives, editorial cartoons, and comics), Curatorial Studies, Latin America/Latinx studies, and Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Dr. Serrano's newest book, Women in Comics: Iconic Characters and Influential Creators, 1890s–Today (co-authored with Susan Kirtley, Black Dog & Leventhal, October 2026), was named a Book to Watch by Publishers Weekly in its Fall 2026 Art, Architecture & Photography preview. She is also the editor of Immigrants and Comics: Graphic Spaces of Remembrance, Transaction, and Mimesis (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Curious Collectors, Collected Curiosities: An Interdisciplinary Study (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010). She served as Guest Editor of Inks: Journal of the Comics Studies Society's special issue, Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas (Volume 9, Issue 3, Fall 2025), and curated "Depicting Mexico and Modernism: Gordo by Gus Arriola // Representando México y el Modernismo: Gordo de Gus Arriola" at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University Libraries.
Dr. Serrano is a co-author of the Modern Language Association's Guidelines for Evaluating Digital Scholarship and is nationally engaged in digital scholarship, visual culture studies, and academic technology leadership, including through ALA, EDUCAUSE, NERCOMP, the Comics Studies Society, and the MLA, where she served as former Chair of the Executive Council's Committee on Information Technology, and the Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee.
Distinctions
International Judge (Invited)
- GNCRT Will Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries Committee (ALA), 2023-24
- Member, EMIERT Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Awards Committee (ALA), 2021-23
- GNCRT Best Graphic Novels for Children Selection Committee (ALA), 2021-22
- Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, Comic-Con International San Diego, 2018
Fellowships and grants:
- Next Leaders Fellowship Fellow, 2022-23
- Leading Change Institute Fellow, Council on Library and Information Resources, 2020-21
- Mellon Press Diversity Fellow (Info. Science, Communication, Visual Culture, Design), 2018-19
- NEH Summer Institute Scholar: "Making Modernism: Literature and Culture in 20th Century Chicago,” Newberry Library, Chicago, IL., summer 2017
- Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition Scholarship for “Commemorating the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair: The Columbian Exposition and the First Souvenir Postal Cards,” spring 2014
- Visiting Scholar of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, 2014-15
Teaching awards and grants:
- Teaching recognition campus-wide: “Significant Impact Nomination” for Intellectual Development (Tufts Univ. first-year and sophomore survey), 2015
- Most Valuable Professor in the College of Liberal Arts Award (Cal. State Univ., Long Beach), 2011-12
Hamilton College
- Special Collections Grant (“Graphic Satire: Editorial Cartoons”), 2017-18
- Special Collections Grant (“New World Printing & The Columbian Exchange”), 2016-17
Select Publications
Books & Edited Volumes:
- Women in Comics: Iconic Characters and Influential Creators 1890s-Today (co-author, with Susan Kirtley). Black Dog and Leventhal, October 6, 2026.
Listed in Publishers Weekly as Book to watch in the “Fall 2026 Fiction & Nonfiction Preview: Art, Architecture & Photograph” list. - Immigrants and Comics: Graphic Spaces of Remembrance, Transaction, and Mimesis, Advances in Comics Series, Routledge, 2021. Sole editor of anthology.
- Curious Collectors, Collected Curiosities: An Interdisciplinary Study (co-editor with Janelle A. Schwartz). Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010.
Listed in "Books of Critical Interest" in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 37, No. 3 (spring 2011), pp. 574-581.
Refereed Articles & Chapters:
- “Casting el Inca, Garcilaso de la Vega, Comparatively Speaking.” Approaches to Teaching Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Royal Commentaries & Other Works, edited by Christian Fernández and José A. Mazzotti, Modern Language Association, 2022.
- “Columbia and the Editorial Cartoon.” The Oxford Handbook of Comics Studies, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Oxford University Press. Print publication: September 2020; Published online: March 2019.
- "Drawn from Clay: Mexican Cerámica, Material Culture, and Bilingual Visual Modernism in Gus Arriola's Gordo." Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society vol. 9, no. 3, 2025, pp. 251-74. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976994.
- “Illuminating Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The Museum of Innocence.” MLA Approaches to Teaching Orhan Pamuk, edited by David Damrosch and Sevinç Tûrkkan, Modern Language Association, 2017, pp. 202-11.
- "Introduction to Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas." Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society 9, no. 3, 2025, pp. 229-244. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/976992.
- “LACMA’s Gambit: In Wonderland’s Surrealist Women.” X-Tra Contemporary Art Quarterly vol. 15, no. 2, Winter 2013, pp. 102-113.
- “Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Decade of the Comics Studies Society” co-author, with Matthew J. Smith, Jared Gardner, Charles Hatfield, A. David Lewis, and Qiana Whitted). Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring 2026, pp. 119–42. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/30/article/991720.
- “Postcards from the Past: 1893 Chicago World Fair and Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth.” Immigrants and Comics: Graphic Spaces of Remembrance, Transaction, and Mimesis, edited by Nhora Lucía Serrano, Routledge, 2021.
- “(Un)Tangling Arachne & the Latina Storyteller” in Gendering XXI: New Trends in Latina and Hispanic Caribbean Literatures in the 21st Century, edited by Pilar Melero and Nancy Bird-Soto, Editorial Tiempo Nuevo, 2017, pp. 151-81.
- “Visual Frames and Breaking the Rules of the Reconquista.” Playthings in Early Modernity, edited by Allison Levy, Medieval Institute Publications, 2017, pp. 261-77.
Journal Editor:
- Guest Editor, Inks: Journal of the Comics Studies Society, Special Issues: Inked Latinidades: Latinx/e Voices and Narrativas en Viñetas (Volume 9, Issue 3. Fall 2025). Includes authored introduction and peer-reviewed scholarly essay.
Public Scholarship:
- "Supergirl's Long Fight to Escape Superman's Shadow" (coauthor, with Susan Kirtley). Ms. Magazine, October 6, 2026. https://msmagazine.com/2026/06/27/supergirl-review-superman-shadow-feminism/
- "ACLU: Back-To-School Bookshelf 2026: Artists, Authors, and Creators Share Their Favorite Reads About Civil Liberties," September 16, 2026. https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/aclu-back-to-school-bookshelf-2026-our-reading-list-to-build-a-more-perfect-union
Courses Taught
- Checkmate!: Play, Games & Cultural Exchanges in the Mediterranean Basin
- Collecting Curiosities
- Digital Humanities, Social Justice, & Liberal Arts
- Dream a Little Dream: Virtual Reality and Literature
- Immigrants and Comics
- Lost Civilizations: Latin America & its Literary Imagination
- Readings in World Literature I
- Show and Tell: Comics and Graphic Narratives
- Suffrage and Comics
- Visual Narratives: Images With(In) Books
Curatorial Experience
- Curator of “Gus Arriola: Modernism and the Latino Cartoonist.” Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, The Ohio State University. 2023-24
- Curator of “The Columbian Exchange.” Burke Library, Hamilton College. 2016-2017
Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., New York University
B.A., Amherst College
Languages
Spanish: native speaker
French: excellent
Quechua, Italian and Occitan: proficient
Portuguese, Latin (classical and medieval), Galician-Portuguese, Greek, Andalusi Arabic: reading knowledge
Service
International/National
- 2022-present
MLA Committee on Information Technology (Executive Council, 2022-25, Chair 2023–26) - 2025-present
NERCOMP Board Member (Committees: Conference, Leadership, Vendors) - 2025-present
EDUCAUSE Nominations and Leadership Development Committee - 2024-present
EDUCAUSE Technology, Leadership & Culture Advisory Committee - 2020–2025
Delegate Assembly Member (elected) for Book History, Print Cultures, Lexicography, Modern Language Association - 2019–2024
Member (elected), MLA Executive Committee, Discussion Group on Book History, Print Cultures, Lexicography - 2014–present
Founding Member and Treasurer (elected), Comics Studies Society - 2013–2018
Member (elected), MLA Executive Committee, Discussion Group on Comics and Graphic Narratives
Hamilton College
- 2026-present
Arts & Sciences Safety Committee (ASSC) - 2026-present
Curatorial Studies Committee - 2022-present
Humanities Center Advisory Committee - 2022-present
Faculty Committee on the Digital Arts, Ex Officio Committee Member - 2022-2024
Posse Mentor, Hamilton Posse Miami 13
Co-Editor of Book Series
- Crossing Lines: Transcultural/Transnational Comics Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Contact
Research & Instructional Design Staff
