Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies

Nadia Celis is a Professor jointly appointed in Romance Languages and Literatures and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies. Her primary research interests are in Caribbean literature and culture, with an emphasis on issues of gender and sexuality. She is the author of the books Crónica de una amor terrible. La secreta historia de la novia devuelta en la muerte anunciada de García Márquez (Bogotá, Lumen/Penguin, 2023), widely covered by media such as El Espectador, Repeating IslandsNoticias Caracol,  HJCKInfobaeEl Heraldo, and El Tiempo. Her previous book, La rebelión de las niñas: El Caribe y la “conciencia corporal” (Madrid/Frankfurt, Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2015), was also the winner of a Nicolás Guillén Award by the Caribbean Philosophical Association, an Honorable Mention of the Premio Iberoamericano by LASA, and the Premio Montserrat Ordóñez by LASA’s Colombia section. Celis is also the co-editor of Mayra Santos-Febres y el Caribe contemporáneo (San Juan: Isla Negra, 2011).

Celis is currently working on a narrative Podcast series about love and violence in the literary and sentimental education of women in Latin America and Latinx communities, as well as in another book-project on the Colombian Nobel Prize Gabriel García Márquez, for which she was awarded a fellowship by the Harry Ransom Center (UT Austin). Other recent publications include “From “the Clay of Your Skin”: Lessons from the Recent Work of Mayra Santos-Febres” (Latin American Literature Today, 2022), "La “Niña-niña”: expresividad y legibilidad de la violencia machista en Los divinos de Laura Restrepo"(Revista de Estudios Colombianos, 2022), “Entre el 'crimen atroz' y el 'amor terrible': Amor, poder y violencia en Crónica de una muerte anunciada de Gabriel García Márquez” (REGS Revista de estudios de género y sexualidades, 2018) Victoria Urbano Award to best critical essay by the Asociación de Estudios de Género y Sexualidades AEGS, and “La soledad de Úrsula: Intimidad y violencia en Macondo, ayer y hoy” (Universidad del Valle, 2017).

Teaching and Research Interests

  • 20th and 21st Century Latin American, Hispanic Caribbean and Latinx Literature

  • Latin American, Latina and Caribbean Women’s Writing

  • Caribbean Literature and Culture
  • Literature and Culture of Colombia
  • Gender, Women and Feminist Studies
  • Gabriel García Márquez's work
  • Bodies, Sexuality and Subjectivity 
  • Cultural Studies

  • Postcolonial and Decolonial Theories
Nadia Celis
Selected Media Appearances
Teaching and Community Involvement
Personal website

Education

  • PhD, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, 2007
  • Graduate Certificate, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies, Rutgers University, 2007
  • MA, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, 2004
  • BA, Programa de Lingüística y Literatura, Universidad de Cartagena, 2000