University Press Interview with Prof. Karina Vado on Latin American Studies

Check out a fantastic interview with Professor Karina Vado in the University Press .

UP Contriuting Writer Gabriela Quintero asked a range of questions on Prof. Vado's background, her education and scholarship, and why she's glad to live and work in South Florida.

An excerpt from "Navigating the realm of Latin American studies: A Q&A with Karina Vado":

Quintero: To you, what makes FAU an attractive place to practice and teach your studies?

Vado: Well, I have only been at FAU for a whole year, but perhaps what is most attractive is the location; we are in South Florida, which is a gateway, an area that has a really rich and long history with Latin America and the Caribbean. For me, thinking about this migration of bodies of ideas and ideologies is really innate to my work, especially about Latinx and Latin American exchanges, throughout time, literature and culture. It makes the location of FAU perfect through its hemispherical focus on Latin American/Caribbean studies in terms of what I focus my scholarship on. But then in terms of the kind of institution that it is, FAU professors tend to be very student-centric, which allows FAU to value teaching as much as it does its students, which is something that I wanted: to be able to work closely with students and have smaller classes, which give me the opportunity to develop those relationships with students.

I was also really drawn to the fact that FAU is one of the most diverse public universities in the state of Florida, which was really important to me because I wanted to practice my studies at a minority-serving institution, which are the kinds of students and communities that I am the most drawn to due to my own background.   [ . . . ]