Néfer Muñoz-Solano, PhD

• PhD, Harvard University, Romance Languages and Literatures. 2013.
• A.M., Harvard University, Hispanic Literatures. 2008.
• M.A., New York University, Latin American Studies and Journalism. 2005.
• Licenciate, University of Costa Rica, Journalism. 2003.
• B.A., University of Costa Rica, Mass Communications. 1997

• literary theory
• aesthetics
• Latin American Studies
• journalism and literature

• President. Executive Committee Forum, Literatures of the United States in
  Languages other than English. Modern Language Association. January 2022 – 2023.
• Elected member. Executive Committee Forum, Literatures of the United States in
  Languages other than English. Modern Language Association. December 2018 –
  2023.
• Editorial Board Member at Revista de Lenguas Modernas. University of Costa Rica.
  2020 to present.

Mass Communications and Journalism

• Producer and Host. University of Costa Rica Radio. En la Academia. 2015-2017.
• Producer. Latin America desk. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). London,
  United Kingdom. 2013-2014.
• Correspondent. Central America desk. Inter Press Service. (IPS) News Agency.
  Costa Rica. 1999-2003.
• President. Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in Costa Rica (APEX).
  2001.
• Correspondent. Central America desk. Europa Press (EP). Costa Rica. 2000-2002.
• Instructor of Journalism. Latin University. San José, Costa Rica. 1998-2000.
• Staff Reporter. La Nación. San José, Costa Rica. 1996-1999.

• Associate Professor of Spanish. Modern Languages and Literatures, University of
  Dallas. April 2021 – Present.
• Assistant Professor of Spanish. Modern Languages and Literatures, University of
  Dallas. August 2017 – April 2021.
• Profesor en Propiedad (Tenured Professor). School of Social Sciences; School of
  Literature; Society and Culture Studies (graduate program). University of Costa Rica.
  July 2016 – August 2017.
• Research Affiliate. Center for Research in Mass Communication (CICOM),
  University of Costa Rica. January 2014 – July 2017.
• Profesor Invitado (Visiting Assistant Professor). University of Costa Rica. January
  2014 – July 2016.
• Graduate Student Associate. David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies,
  Harvard University. 2008 – 2012.
• Resident Tutor in Spanish. Kirkland House, Harvard University. 2011 – 12.
• Teaching Fellow in Spanish and Portuguese. Harvard University. 2007 – 2012.
• Spanish Instructor. Harvard Summer Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2011.
• Spanish Instructor. Harvard Summer Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2009.
• Adjunct Spanish Instructor. Hunter College, City University of New York. Spring
  2005.
• Adjunct Spanish Instructor. New York University. Fall 2004.

 

Administrative Leadership

• Spanish Program Co-Director (Upper-Division Coordinator). Modern Languages
  and Literatures. University of Dallas. 2020 – Spring 2023.
• Spanish Program Co-Director (Lower-Division Coordinator). Modern Languages
  and Literatures. University of Dallas. 2019 – 2020.
• Faculty Member. Student Success Committee. University of Dallas. September
  2022 – Present.
• Faculty Mentor. Gregory Undergraduate Residence. University of Dallas. 2019 –
  2021.
• Director. Costa Rica Summer Program. Modern Languages and Literatures.
  University of Dallas. 2018 – Spring 2022.
• Faculty Representative. Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial
  Aid. University of Dallas. 2020.
• Journalism Program Director. School of Mass Communications. University of
  Costa Rica. 2014 – 2016. 

University of Dallas
• Senior Project/Latin American Journalist Writers
• Spanish-American Short Story
• 20th Century Spanish-American Novel
• Spanish-American Literary Traditions
• Spanish Film and Conversation
• Advanced Spanish Composition and Grammar
• Second-Year Spanish I and II (intensive)
• Second-Year Spanish II
• Second-Year Spanish I
• First-year Spanish II
• Intensive First-Year Spanish

University of Costa Rica
• Literatura centroamericana (Central American literature)
• Teoría de la novela (Theory of the novel)
• Coloquio de investigación I (Research coloquium I)
• Teoría Literaria I (Literary theory I)
• Producción verbal (Verbal Production)
• Periodismo narrativo (Narrative Journalism)
• Português Intensivo II (Intensive Portuguese II)
• Estética y teoría literaria (Aesthetics and literary theory)
• Taller de investigación I (Academic Writing I)
• Taller de investigación II (Academic Writing II)
• Técnicas del relato y la narración (Writing and Narration Techniques)
• Técnicas de reporteo (Reporting techniques)

Harvard University
• Spanish Aa: Spanish for Beginners I
• Spanish Ab: Spanish for Beginners II
• Spanish 70: Introduction to Latin American Studies
• Spanish Aab: Harvard Summer School in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Intermediate Spanish: Harvard Summer School in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Portuguese 37: Brasil hoje. Contemporary Brazilian Culture Through Media

• "La nostalgia y el (des)cuido en la novela Roza tumba quema de Claudia Hernández”.
  Revista Istmo: Revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos.
  Forthcoming. Fall 2024.
• “Homecoming and Public Education: The Cancel Culture (of class time) in Costa
  Rica”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America. Harvard University. April 2024.
  https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/homecoming-and-public-education-the-cancelculture-of-class-time-in-costa-rica/
• “García Márquez’s literary smuggling in The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor”. Peer reviewed. Texas Studies in Literature and Language. University of Texas at Austin.
  March 2024.
  https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/15/article/920736
• “Clamando y (re)clamando: Maurice Echeverría y Miguel Huezo Mixco, dos cronistas
  de la violencia en Centroamérica”. Peer-reviewed. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos.
  Washington University in St. Louis. May 2021.
  https://muse.jhu.edu/article/791055
• “House of Cards y su narrativa: la realidad en la ficción o la
  ficción en la realidad” in Locos por las series. Editors Camilo Retana and María
  Lourdes Cortés. Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. February 2021.
  https://editorial.ucr.ac.cr/arte/item/2578-locos-por-lasseries.html 
• “García Márquez: el periodismo hiperbólico y la invención del diarismo mágico”.
  Peer-reviewed. Revista de Filología y Lingüística. Universidad de Costa Rica.
  January 2021.
  https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/filyling/article/view/44439/44977
• “El espacio de las redacciones: novelando en el periódico y reporteando en la novela
  de América Latina”. Peer-reviewed. Revista de Lenguas Modernas. Universidad de
  Costa Rica. December 2020.
  https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rlm/article/view/41829/45074
• “Lima Barreto: la ficción y la no ficción en ‘El subterráneo del Cerro del Castillo’”.
  Peer-reviewed. Estudios. Escuela de Estudios Generales de la Universidad de Costa
  Rica. December 2020.
  https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/estudios/article/view/44810/44650
• “Lima Barreto: un escritor brasileño en la favela de la Ciudad Letrada”. Revista
  Estudios. Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Mexico City. November 2020.
  http://estudios.itam.mx/es/54/paginas/tabla-de-contenido?revista=134
• “Una estética y una historia del sensacionalismo: el caso de José Marín Cañas y las
  imbricaciones entre el periodismo y la literatura en América Latina” in Orígenes y
  consolidación del sensacionalismo periodístico en Iberoamérica: México, Argentina y
  Costa Rica. Editor Francesc A. Martínez Gallego, Madrid, Fragua, 2020, pp. 241-257.
  https://books.google.co.cr/books/about/Or%C3%ADgenes_y_consolidaci%C3%B3n_del_sensacion.html?id=qORmzQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y 
• “La lucha (de clases) de la cocina: los alimentos y la dialéctica de la apetencia en la
  novela Mamita Yunai de Carlos Luis Fallas”. Peer-reviewed. October 2018. Published
  in: Revista de Filología y Lingüística. Universidad de Costa Rica. No. 44, Volume 2,
  Year 2018.
  https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/filyling/article/view/34670/34243
• “El cuerpo en latinoamérica hace cultura: Ángel ‘Chuco’ Quintero”. Interview. Revista
  Istmo: revista virtual de estudios literarios y culturales centroamericanos. ISSN: 1535-
  2315. No. 31, July-December 2015.
  http://istmo.denison.edu/n31/foro/01.html
• “Catastrophe in Latin American Literature: A Review of Épicas ordinarias: espacios de
  catástrofe y discursos intelectuales en México, Puerto Rico y Chile (1985-2005), by
  Judith Sierra-Rivera”. Review. Dissertation Reviews, March 30, 2015.
  http://dissertationreviews.org/catastrophe-in-latin-american-literature/
• “Historia de una elección con un final inesperado”. Special report. Perspectivas.
  Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). Colombia. No. 4, August 2014.
  https://fescomunica.fes.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/publicaciones/documentos/Perspectivas_4.2014_-_Medios_y_elecciones_Costa_Rica.pdf 
• “Las exageraciones en el periodismo de García Márquez”. BBC Mundo. Special report.
  April 17, 2014.
  https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2014/04/130422_garcia_marquez_diarismo_magico_ob_nm 
• “El país con la menor participación ciudadana de América Latina”. BBC Mundo.
  Special report. October 28, 2013.
  https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2013/10/131025_america_latina_costa_rica_politica 
• “Arturo Ripstein: ‘Siempre pretendí filmar como escribía Faulkner’”. Interview.
  Semanario Universidad. San José Costa Rica. July 31, 2013.
  https://historico.semanariouniversidad.com/suplementos/forja/arturo-ripsteinsiempre-pretend-filmar-como-escriba-faulkner/
  Dissertation: “Novelando en el periódico y reporteando en la novela de América
  Latina”. Harvard University, May 2013. 336 pages.
• “Faces of Latin America”. Photo essay. Romance Sphere. Harvard University.
  November 2011.
• “Investigative journalism in Latin America: The Case of Costa Rica” (“Periodismo
  investigativo en América Latina: el caso de Costa Rica”). Master’s project. New York
  University. May 2005.
• Thesis: “La historia del reportaje en Costa Rica”. Universidad de Costa Rica. San José,
  2003
• El trópico seco reverdece (The dry tropics are greening). Special report. United
  Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-
  00-8. San José, Costa Rica. 2001.
• Los magos del vetiver (Wizards of vetiver). Special report. United Nations International
  Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-01-6. San José, Costa
  Rica. 2001.
• Cae la tiranía del monocultivo (Monoculture tyranny falls). Special report. United
  Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-
  05-9. San José, Costa Rica. 2001.
• Los cafetaleros ecológicos (Ecological coffee planters). Special report. United Nations
  International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-06-0. San
  José, Costa Rica. 2001.
• Innovadores del desarrollo (Innovators of development). Special report. United
  Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-
  05-2. San José, Costa Rica. 2001.
• Produciendo semillas (Producing seeds). Special report. United Nations International
  Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-04-4. San José, Costa
  Rica. 2001.
• De pastores a empresarios (Shepherds and entrepreneurs). Special report. United
  Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ISBN: 9968-866-
  03-06. San José, Costa Rica. 2001.
• Agricultores se convierten en empresarios (Peasants and entrepreneurs). Special
  report. United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
  ISBN: 9968-866-06-7. San José, Costa Rica. 2001

Works in Progress
Book project. Noveling in Newspapers and Reporting in Novels in Latin America. This
work investigates the imbrications and porosity between journalism and narrative
fiction in Latin America. Specifically, it examines how three Latin American journalistwriters, Afonso de Lima Barreto (Brazil), José Marín Cañas (Costa Rica) and Gabriel
García Márquez (Colombia) write in a fluid double-sided process of textual creation
during the twentieth century. In their journalistic production, these writers include
characters or situations that are false or imagined and, at the same time, while working
in newspapers, write novels based on their journalistic reports. This discursive
dialogism results in works with different degrees of hybridity that relativize the
argument of those who see rigid boundaries between journalism and literature in Latin
America. The literary figure of the journalist-writer, who produces narrative fiction
while simultaneously working for newspapers, magazines and news services, is a
deeply rooted tradition in Latin American letters. In this study, special attention is given
to the complex deployment of reference, hyperbole, deception and lying. During the
twentieth century, when Latin American newspapers strove to appear less politicized
and more commercialized to readers, the journalist-writers continually masked their
political views under the cloak of fact-oriented journalistic discourse. The book also
analyzes genre borders and develops concepts like “Favela de las Letras” (“Lettered
Favela”) and “diarismo mágico” (“magical journalism”).

Book project. Crónicas. This non-fiction anthology comprises texts I wrote between
1998 and 2014 in San José (Costa Rica), New York, and Rio de Janeiro. Divided into
three parts: interviews, profiles, and vignettes, some of these works were originally
published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, La Nación, and Semanario
Universidad. Interviewees include Mexican intellectual Carlos Monsiváis, Argentinian
songwriter Facundo Cabral, and former Ecuadorian president, Abdalá Bucaram.

Article. “Fragmentos de memoria histórica y literatura en Centroamérica: zigzagueos
entre ficción y no ficción”. Following peace agreements of the 1990s, Central
America’s presence in the international mass media has faded progressively. Yet the
root causes of conflict and impunity remain intact. How is Central America addressing
these wounds? How are processes of social disruption and healing depicted in
literature? One literary technique of mourning is intertwining fiction and non-fiction.
Through this lens, I analyze the novels El material humano by Rodrigo Rey Rosa, and
300 by Rafael Cuevas Molina.

Article. “Central American Journey to Healing: Movements and Displacements”. In
2012, Guatemalan filmmaker Sergio Ramírez launched Distancia (Distance), which
recounts the journey of an indigenous peasant who reunites with his daughter after
twenty years. A survivor of Guatemala's civil war, the peasant believed his daughter
had died until he learns that she was kidnapped by paramilitary forces. This paper
explores the man’s journey as an allegory for different aspects of displacement
experienced by indigenous Guatemalans in modern history. In particular, it analyzes
linguistic, ethnic and emotional forms of distance, both physical and symbolic.

Article. “El monstruo y la postmemoria en la película Nuestras Madres de César Díaz”.
In The Monster as a War Machine, critic Mabel Moraña writes that monstrification is
“a two-way street, a dialectic without synthesis, a way of asymmetrically representing
the symbolic exchanges that integrate and shape the social”. For Moraña, the
construction of the “Other” hides complex developments crossed by ambiguity and
paradox, where extremes are contaminated. In the film Nuestras Madres (Our
Mothers), debut feature by Guatemalan filmmaker César Díaz, the young
anthropologist, Ernesto, seeks the remains of his father, a slain guerrilla fighter who he
never met. His search is marked by the identity he has constructed of his father (and
himself) through the memory of his mother, a former political activist and survivor of
violence. In the process, an unexpected truth emerges that impacts Ernesto’s notions of
himself. This book chapter will explore monstrification’s dialectic without synthesis
in Central American violence and the unstable terrain of post-memory in the
construction of identity.

Book project. Introduction to Central American Literature. In collaboration with
Professor Werner Mackenbach of the University of Costa Rica, I am developing an
introductory anthology of Central American literature for American university
students. While general books on Latin American literature abound, there is a dearth of
books on literature of the Central American isthmus. Thanks to works such as Popol
Vuh, and core Central American authors such as Rubén Darío and Miguel Ángel
Asturias, some Central American works are included in most literary anthologies on
Latin America. Nonetheless, mainstream attention to Central American literary
production – its history, context, and main authors of the 19th to 21st centuries, is
lacking. This project aims to fill that gap. It will contain a selection of major works by
Central American authors, a brief biography on each writer with historical, social, and
cultural context, a selection of representative texts, and a series of questions and
exercises.

• “El centro periférico: naturaleza y producción cultural en América Central”.Colloquium Central America Today: Literature, Film, Society, Politics. University of Costa Rica, San José. June 21, 2024.
• “El centro periférico: naturaleza y producción cultural en América Central”. University of Guadalajara, Mexico. June 12, 2024.
• “Las crisis ambientales de Centroamérica afrontadas desde el cine y la literatura”. RiceUniversity. Houston, Texas. October 20, 2023.
• “El monstruo y la postmemoria en la película Nuestras Madres del director guatemalteco César Díaz”. Texas Christian University. Fort Worth, Texas. April 18,2023.
• “García Márquez’s literary smuggling in The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Virtual Congress. May 5, 2022.
• “El monstruo y la postmemoria en la película Nuestras Madres del director guatemalteco César Díaz”. International Bicentennial Congress: challenges and prospects for the future of Central America. “Congreso Internacional del Bicentenario: retos y perspectivas del futuro de Centroamérica”. San José, Costa Rica. September 29,2021.
• “Subjetividad contemporánea y emociones colectivas”. Round table with professors Marta Rizo García (Mexico-Spain), Lisbeth Araya (Costa Rica), and María Aparecida Ferrari (Brazil). Virtual talk. July 8, 2021.
• “Claudia Hernández: affections and disaffections in the novel of a Central American.” Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Virtual Congress. May 28, 2021.
• “Raíces y rizomas en las literaturas caribeñas”. Virtual interview with Dr. Werner Mackenback. “Connected Worlds: The Caribbean, Origin of the Modern World”. Project of the European Union. Red TransCaribe. CIHAC. February 4, 2021.
• “Guerra, violencia y paz en la literatura centroamericana contemporánea”. Colloquium Representaciones de la violencia en la literatura centroamericana, University of Costa Rica. Centro de Investigaciones Históricas de Centroamérica (CIHAC). San José, Costa Rica. June 14, 2019.
• “Migrando hacia la memoria histórica: tránsitos y dislocaciones en la película guatemalteca Distancia de Sergio Ramírez”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Boston, Massachusetts. May 26, 2019.
• Teaching Squares, University of Dallas. Faculty exchange on best teaching practices. Irving, Texas. March 2019.
• “Cities and Favelas: The Case of Lima Barreto”. Fourth Annual Colloquium: Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México / University of Dallas. The City: Ancient Roots and Contemporary Realities. Irving, Texas. November 1-2, 2018.
• “La ficción de la historia y la historia de la ficción: una relectura del clásico de la literatura Mamita Yunai de Carlos Luis Fallas”. University of Costa Rica. Casa de las Cátedras Internacionales. San José, Costa Rica. June 15, 2018.
• “Memoria histórica y literatura en Centroamérica: zigzagueos entre ficción y no ficción”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Barcelona, Spain. May 23, 2018.
• “Cicatrices en la Centroamérica del siglo XXI en la prosa de Miguel Huezo Mixco y Maurice Echeverría”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). New York, New York. May 27, 2016.
• “Violencia y memoria en Centroamérica: la ficción y la no ficción entrelazadas en El material humano de Rodrigo Rey Rosa”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Chicago, Illinois. May 22, 2014.
• “El diarismo mágico o el uso de la hipérbole en el periodismo de García Márquez”. XII Coloquio Literario de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Monterrey on Gabriel GarcíaMárquez, Monterrey, Mexico. October 17, 2014.
• “El periodismo hiperbólico o el diarismo mágico en Gabriel García Márquez (Hyperbolic journalism or magical journalism in Gabriel García Márquez). Post Graduate Seminary. King’s College, London, United Kingdom. February 27, 2013.
• “Perrozompopo: non-conformist migrant music after the Sandinista Revolution”. Conference Narratives of Migration and Exile. King’s College, London, United Kingdom. February 21, 2013.
• “El contrabando literario entre fronteras nebulosas: periodismo y literatura en América Latina” (“Literary contraband between nebulous frontiers: journalism and literature in Latin America”.) Post-Graduate Seminary. King’s College, London, United Kingdom.October 24, 2012.
• “El surgimiento de un nuevo intelectual: periodismo y literatura en América Latina”. Conference of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. June 14, 2009.
• “El escritor Miguel Ángel Asturias y su hijo el guerrillero Rodrigo Asturias: Hombresde raíz”. 32nd Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association. Bahia, Brazil. May 28, 2007.

Research Grants

• Senior Fellow, Maria Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies
  in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CALAS)., Academic Year 2023-24. San José,
  Costa Rica.
• Faculty Travel Grant, University of Dallas. January 2022, February 2020, May 2018.
• King/Haggar Scholar Award, University of Dallas. 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021.
• Jorge Paulo Lemann Fellowship for research in Brazil, Harvard University. USD
  18,000. Academic year 2009-2010.
• David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Summer Research Travel
  Grant (Brazil), Harvard University. 2008 and 2010.
• Nancy Clark Smith Fund, Harvard University. Summer research in Brazil. 2006,
  2007 and 2010.

Honors

• Anacapa Scholar at The Thacher School. Ojai, California. February 2017.
• Distinction in teaching of Communications, Literatures and Cultures, University of
  Costa Rica. Academic years 2014 and 2015.
• Teaching Prize. Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard
  University. 2012.
• Certificate of Distinction in Teaching to Undergraduates, Bok Center for Teaching
  and Learning, Harvard University (awarded to Teaching Fellows with average
  evaluation scores over 4.5/5). Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 (Spanish Teaching); Fall
  2011 and Spring 2012 (Portuguese Teaching).
• Inter American Press Association Fellowship (IAPA) Annual Scholarship, 2003.
  Granted to one Latin American to study for one year in the United States. USD
  13,000.
• LASPAU-Organization of American States Scholarship. Granted for completion of a
  master’s program in the United States, 2003 – 2005.
• Foundation of New Ibero-American Journalism Fellowship. Writing workshop with
  Alma Guillermoprieto. México City. October, 1997.
• Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión Española (IORTV). Fellowship to study radio
  broadcasting. Madrid, Spain. January – February 1996.