Faculty Profile
Carolina Castellanos Gonella
Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese (2010)
Contact Information
Bosler Hall Room M12
717-245-1834
Bio
Professor Castellanos Gonella's research focuses on 20th and 21st centuries Latin American literature (Brazilian and Mexican narrative). More specifically, she works with a gender and sexuality studies lens. Her first book, Warrior Women and Trans Warriors: Performing Masculinities in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature, analyzes gender transgressive characters in the Mexican novel Los de abajo, the Venezuelan novel Doña Bárbara, and the Brazilian novel Grande sertão: veredas (Purdue University Press, November 2024). She is currently preparing her second book manuscript, which examines how women involved in drug trafficking in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico are portrayed in newspapers. Professor Castellanos Gonella's work has been published in scholarly journals such as Latin American Research Review, Luso-Brazilian Review, Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, Journal of Lusophone Studies, Chasqui, Literatura mexicana, and others.
Education
- B.A., Universidad de Los Andes, Bogot谩, 2000
- M.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2004
- M.A., Vanderbilt University, 2007
- Ph.D., 2010
2025-2026 Academic Year
Fall 2025
SPAN 231 Spanish Composition
Across the world and throughout history, statistics have shown that men commit more crimes than women. However, women's involvement with drug trafficking in Latin America has grown exponentially. The main goal of this class is to analyze Mexican women's diverse and complex participation in drug trafficking while developing writing skills in Spanish. Some of the questions the course will discuss are: How are women represented? What are women saying and experiencing? Does women's participation in drug trafficking challenge traditional rules and values? Are conventional notions of femininity and masculinity redefined by women's participation in the criminal world? Because it is a writing-intensive (WR) course, students will take a process approach to writing (drafting, peer reviewing, feedback, and editing). Students will read newspaper clips, testimonials, interviews, watch a film, and listen to narcocorridos.
LALC 285 Cu铆r/Queer Brazil
Cross-listed with PORT 380-01 and WGSS 301-05. Course taught in English. Stereotyped as the country of carnival and licentiousness, Brazil combines a complex history of traditional, oppressive, and progressive values and laws. Same-sex marriage was approved in 2013, sex-correction surgeries are supported by the universal health care system, and São Paulo hosts the largest LGBTQIA+ parade in the world. Still, Brazil has the highest recorded number of murders of trans* people in the world. The goal of this course is to analyze the complexities of the literary, historical, and cinematographic production in Brazil of cuír authors and topics. The course examines how self-representations and representations have created, challenged, promoted, and affected the LGBTQIA+ community. At the same time, the course foregrounds the importance of how Brazilians have thought about their own cuírness.
WGSS 301 Cu铆r/Queer Brazil
Cross-listed with LALC 285-01 and PORT 380-01. Course taught in English. Stereotyped as the country of carnival and licentiousness, Brazil combines a complex history of traditional, oppressive, and progressive values and laws. Same-sex marriage was approved in 2013, sex-correction surgeries are supported by the universal health care system, and São Paulo hosts the largest LGBTQIA+ parade in the world. Still, Brazil has the highest recorded number of murders of trans* people in the world. The goal of this course is to analyze the complexities of the literary, historical, and cinematographic production in Brazil of cuír authors and topics. The course examines how self-representations and representations have created, challenged, promoted, and affected the LGBTQIA+ community. At the same time, the course foregrounds the importance of how Brazilians have thought about their own cuírness.
PORT 380 Cu铆r/Queer Brazil
Cross-listed with LALC 285-01 and WGSS 301-05. Course taught in English. Stereotyped as the country of carnival and licentiousness, Brazil combines a complex history of traditional, oppressive, and progressive values and laws. Same-sex marriage was approved in 2013, sex-correction surgeries are supported by the universal health care system, and São Paulo hosts the largest LGBTQIA+ parade in the world. Still, Brazil has the highest recorded number of murders of trans* people in the world. The goal of this course is to analyze the complexities of the literary, historical, and cinematographic production in Brazil of cuír authors and topics. The course examines how self-representations and representations have created, challenged, promoted, and affected the LGBTQIA+ community. At the same time, the course foregrounds the importance of how Brazilians have thought about their own cuírness.
LALC 490 Lat Am/Latinx/Carib St SR Rsch
Research into a topic concerning Latin America directed by two or more faculty representing at least two disciplines. Students must successfully defend their research paper to obtain course credit. The paper is researched and written in the fall semester for 1.0 credit and then defended and revised in the spring semester for .50 credit.
Prerequisite: senior majors.