Angeles Donoso Macaya

Professor
Modern Languages

Office: S-601V

Office Hours: Monday, 2 to 4 pm (zoom)

Phone: +1 (212) 220-8000;ext=5172

Angeles Donoso Macaya is an immigrant educator, researcher and organizer from Santiago, Chile, based in New York City. She is Professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY and also teaches at the Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at The CUNY Graduate Center. Her research centers on Latin American photography theory and history, counter-archival production, human rights activism, documentary film, and feminisms, with a focus on the Southern Cone. She is the author of La insubordinación de la fotografía (Metales Pesados 2021) / The Insubordination of Photography: Documentary Practices under Chile’s Dictatorship (University Press of Florida, 2020), which received the Best Book Award in Latin American Visual Culture at LASA 2021. She is also co-editor of Latina/os of the East Coast: A Critical Reader (Peter Lang, 2015).

Ángeles is also 2020-2022 Faculty Lead of Archives in Common: Migrant Practices / Knowledges / Memory, part of the Mellon Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research at The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center / CUNY; and a 2020-2021 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow.

Ángeles joined CUNY in 2013. At BMCC, she teaches introductory, intermediate and advanced courses on Spanish language, and advanced courses on Latin American & Caribbean literature, film, and visual culture. At the Graduate Center, she teaches a seminar about Histories of Latin American Photography. Angeles has published extensively about contemporary Latin American photography, visual arts, documentary film and contemporary literature. Her articles have appeared in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia, in the journals Vazantes, American Quarterly, Aisthesis, Chasqui, Revista Hispanica Moderna, LaFuga and in the collective volumes Cold War Camera (Duke UP 2022); Photography and its Publics (Bloomsbury 2020); Un asombro renovado: vanguardias contemporaneas en Latinoamerica (Iberoamericana 2017); Technology, Literature, and Digital Culture in Latin America (Routledge 2016), Des/memorias: culturas y practicas mnemonicas en America Latina y el Caribe (Linkgua 2016).

Expertise

Latin American photography theory and history; visual studies; Latin/x and Latin American and Caribbean studies; 20^th-21^st century Southern Cone and Mexican literature; human rights activism and counter-archival production with a focus on the Southern Cone and the Andean zone (Perú, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay); performance studies; Queer and feminist theory; Continental philosophy.

Degrees

B.A. Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Hispanic Literature and Linguistics,2003
M.A. Washington University in Saint Louis, Spanish,2005
Ph.D. Washington University in Saint Louis, Hispanic Languages & Literature,2010

Courses Taught

3 CRS.4 HRS.1 LAB HRS. SPN 105 SPN 105 (Introductory Spanish I): This course is for students who have had no previous background in Spanish. Grammar is taught inductively and simple texts are read. Speaking, reading, and writing are emphasized students who have taken SPN 103 will not receive credit for this course. Prerequisite: Departmental Placement
6 CRS.6 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 121 SPN 121 (Elementary Intensive Spanish 1 & 2): This intensive course combines Spanish 105 and 106 into a one-semester course. It is designed for students who have had no previous background in Spanish. Students develop their skills in listening, comprehension, speaking and writing in Spanish, supplemented by readings and analysis of simple Spanish texts. In addition to building vocabulary on everyday life, students develop the ability to make questions and to describe themselves and others, their environment, preferences and lifestyles in Spanish. In the second half of the semester, students are introduced to past tenses, and develop their ability to narrate events and describe people and situations in the past. The course also exposes students to different forms of Spanish and Spanish cultures through music and short film clips. Since the goal is to enhance students’ speaking and writing abilities in Spanish, Spanish will be the main language spoken in class.
3 CRS.4 HRS.1 LAB HRS. SPN 107 SPN 107 (Introductory Spanish for Speakers of Spanish): This is an elementary Spanish course for students who can speak Spanish but have no formal training in the language. Students who have taken SPN 101 and/or SPN 102 will not receive credit for this course. Prerequisite: Knowledge of spoken Spanish and Departmental Placement
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 200 SPN 200 (Spanish III): Study in this course includes a review of grammar and reading plus discussion of selected works by modern authors. Self-expression through oral and written reports is emphasized. Prerequisite: SPN 102 or SPN 103 or departmental approval
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 204 SPN 204 (Spanish Film and Conversation): This course involves intensive oral work consisting of discussions of Hispanic films. Drills in pronunciation, intonation and rhythm are included as well as several oral presentations throughout the course. Films will be screened during class sessions or as homework assignments. Readings, written work, and discussions will be in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPN 200 or departmental placement
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 210 SPN 210 (Spanish IV): This intensive writing course emphasizes comprehension, writing, and analysis of contemporary and classical texts. Prerequisite: SPN 200 or departmental approval
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 445 SPN 445 (Spanish VIII : Survey of Spanish-American Literature): Spanish-American Literature This course involves a chronological history of Spanish- American literature from the Colonial period to the 19th century. Readings include selections from Inca Garcilaso, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Sarmiento, José Hernández, Palma, Martí, Darío, and others. Written and oral reports are required.
Prerequisite: SPN 211 or departmental approval, or any 400 level course except SPN 476
3 CRS.3 HRS.3 LAB HRS. SPN 472 SPN 472 (Literature, Culture and Civilization of the Greater Antilles): This course is a survey of the literature, culture and civilization of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Haiti, and Jamaica) geared to the understanding of their heritage as it is preserved by their languages and their artistic achievements. Readings are mainly in English; class discussions are in English, Spanish, and any other modern language.
Prerequisite: SPN 211 or departmental approval, or any 400-level course except SPN 476
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 480 SPN 480 (Spanish and Latin American Texts into Films): This course will introduce students to film adaptations of Spanish and Latin American novels, short stories, diaries and theater plays in the context of the literary and film debate: how does film "translate" text? Should the film be "faithful" to the text? If so, faithful to what aspects, plot dialogue, chronology, social and psychological and socioeconomic backgrounds will be included. Special attention will be given to the study of nationality, gender and sexual differences within Spanish and Latin American societies. Students will examine the connections between text and film, as well as the fundamentals of written and visual identification with the cinematic and textual apparatus.
Prerequisite: SPN 211
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 450 SPN 450 (Spanish IX: 20th Century Spanish-American Literature): The major authors and literary movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries are studied. Works of Horacio Quiroga, Alfonso Reyes, Neruda, César Vallejo, Alejo Carpentier, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and others are analyzed. Written and oral reports are required.
Prerequisite: SPN 211
3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS. SPN 470 SPN 470 (Literature and Civilization of the Spanish-American): The evolution of Spanish-American civilization is studied through literature to enhance understanding of present-day problems and potentialities. Emphasis falls on the relevance of the topography of the regions, the Spanish conquest and colonization, conflicts among cultures and religions of the indigenous peoples: Hispanic settlers, Africans, and recent immigrants; oral and written transmissions of traditions; the struggle for independence; movements for political, social, and economic reforms; the cultural obstacles, the emergence of linguistic distinctiveness and the quest for self-realization are studied. Readings are in Spanish, discussions are in English or Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPN 211 or departmental approval, or any 400-level Spanish course except SPN 476

Research and Projects

The Expanding Photographic Archive of Feminist Movements in Chile (book project)

Historically, feminist movements and feminist theory have given significant weight to the consideration of visuality in a broad sense—historical invisibility of “women,” political underrepresentation, overrepresentation of white women in media, and so on. Yet, what is rendered (in)visible when “women” are rescued from/in the archive? What does the category “women” name and erase? Is it possible to articulate forms of feminist criticism that do not attend to the politics of identity and representation, to develop methodologies that do not reinforce patriarchal paradigms and discursive tropes? The Expanding Photographic Archive of Feminist Movements in Chile explores these questions by critically considering feminist counter-visualities that different feminist and women-led movements have produced in periods of political upheaval across the 20th century in Chile. This interdisciplinary project interconnects the study of archival documentary images (photographs and film) with visual studies, feminist history and historiography, photography theory, art theory, and trans feminist theory.

Archives in Common: Migrant Practices/Knowledges/Memory

This is a collaborative, participatory and decolonial Public Humanities project that brings together community organizers, members of immigrant communities, and members of the university community, with a twofold aim: 1) to assist in the consolidation and further expansion of undocu-immigrant-led initiatives (cooperatives, workshops, gardens) devised in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic to help sustain members of these communities; 2) to think collectively about what an archive of the commons looks like. This project is oriented by the idea that the archive is of the commons—i.e., that the archive’s form, structure, and contents will emerge out of the collaborative process of thinking, working, and creating together. Archives in Common: Migrant Practices/Knowledges/Memory is part of the Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Office of the Provost at the Graduate Center, and the Center for the Humanities.

Check the Archives in Common website here.

Publications

-Books

La insubordinación de la fotografía (Metales Pesados, 2021)
The Insubordination of Photography. Documentary Practices under Chile’s Dictatorship (University Press of Florida 2020)

After Augusto Pinochet rose to power in Chile in 1973, his government abducted, abused, and executed thousands of his political opponents. The Insubordination of Photography is the first book to analyze how various collectives, organizations, and independent media used photography to expose and protest the crimes of Pinochet’s authoritarian regime. I discuss the ways human rights groups such as the Vicariate of Solidarity used portraits of missing persons in order to make forced disappearances visible. I also call attention to forensic photographs that served as incriminating evidence of government killings in the landmark Lonquén case. I argue that the field of documentary photography in Chile was challenged and shaped by the precariousness of the nation’s politics and economics and shows how photojournalists found creative ways to challenge limitations imposed on the freedom of the press. In a culture saturated by disinformation and cover-ups and restricted by repression and censorship, photography became an essential tool to bring the truth to light. Featuring never-before-seen photographs and other archival material, this book reflects on the integral role of images in public memory and issues of reparation and justice.

Best Book Award in Latin American Visual Culture at LASA 2021.

Latinas/os on the East Coast. A Critical Reader. co-edited with Yolanda Medina. New York: Peter Lang, 2015.

– Peer-Reviewed Articles

“Interrogating the Cold War’s Geo-Politics from Down South: Chile from within (1990) and the Construction of a Situated Visuality.” In Cold War Camera. Eds. Thy Phu and Erinna Duganne. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (Forthcoming in 2022).
“‘Somos más’: Towards a feminist critique of the photographic archive of the movement of women and feminists against the Chilean dictatorship.” Travesías. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies (Forthcoming in 2022).
“Documentary Photography and Protest under Chile’s Dictatorship.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History 31. Oxford University Press.
“A Little History of Photographic Displacements: from Chile from Within (1990) to Chile desde adentro (2015).” In Photography and its Publics. Eds. Melissa Miles and Edward Welsh. London: Bloomsbury Press. (2020). 127-145.
“Jamás el fuego nunca de Diamela Eltit: Imaginación crítica, persistencia y afectos.” In Un asombro renovado: vanguardias contemporáneas en Latinoamérica. Eds. Matthew Bush and Luis H Castañeda. Madrid: Editorial Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2017. 127-148.
co-authored with César Barros A. “Dis-locar la materia, re-orientar el presente. Sobre Neltume señala el camino (2016) de Araya-Carrión.” Vazantes Special Issue Matéria, Materialização, Novos Materialismos. 1.1 (2017): 61-84.
“Variations of ‘Frida’: Graciela Iturbide, Mario Bellatin, and La Chica Boom.” In Technology, Literature, and Digital Culture in Latin America: Mediatized Sensibilities in a Globalized Era. Eds. Matthew Bush and Tania Gentic. London: Routledge, 2016. 181-204.
“Re-pensar la memoria fotográfica. Desplazamientos e irrupciones del retrato fotográfico durante la dictadura militar en Chile.” In Des/memorias: culturas y prácticas mnemónicas en América Latina y el Caribe. Eds. Adriana López Labourdette, Silvia Spitta, and Valeria Wagner. Barcelona: Linkgua Ediciones, 2016. 33-57.
co-authored with César Barros A. “Imágenes desatadas de la cultura afroamericana. A propósito de The Black Power Mixtape y los documentales de Marlon Riggs.” La Fuga (Sept. 2013)
co-authored with Melissa González. “Orthodox Transgressions: The Ideology of Cross-Species, Cross-Class, and Inter-Racial Queerness in Lucía Puenzo’s novel El niño pez (The Fish Child).” American Quarterly Special Issue Species/Race/Sex. Eds. Claire Jean Kim and Carla Freccero. 65.3 (September 2013): 711-733.
“Arte, documento y fotografía: Prolegómenos para una reformulación del campo fotográfico en Chile (1977-1998).” Aisthesis 52.2 (December 2012): 407-424.
“‘Yo soy Mario Bellatin y soy de ficción’ o el paradójico borde de lo autobiográfico en El Gran Vidrio (2007).” Chasqui 40.1 (June 2011): 96-110.
“Estética, política y el posible territorio de la ficción en 2666 de Roberto Bolaño.” Revista Hispánica Moderna 62.2 (December 2009): 125-142.

– Book Chapters

“El eje en la luna de Catalina Jünger Cerda.” In De discursos visuales, secuencias y fotolibros. Eds. Ros Boisier y Leo Simoes. Barcelona: Muga, 2019.
“Spic Ecdysis (2014) de Xandra Ibarra, o las mudas de la performance.” Fotografía y Discursos Disciplinares. II y III Coloquio. Eds. Margarita Alvarado, Carla Möller, and José Pablo Concha. Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Católica Ediciones, 2015.
“Introduction: Latina/o Studies, The Emergence and Transformation of a Field.” In Latinas/os on the East Coast. A Critical Reader. Eds. Yolanda Medina and Ángeles Donoso Macaya. New York: Peter Lang, 2015. 1-13.

– Blogs and Invited Contributions

Archives in Common. Humanities for All, April 6, 2021.
“Love is the most subversive praxis.” On reading together as a working of love. By Ángeles Donoso Macaya and Marco Saavedra. Distributaries, The Center for the Humanities, March 10, 2021.
Brewing memories, sustaining life in common. Distributaries, The Center for the Humanities, December 09, 2020
“A propósito de la emergencia de un campo fotográfico.” In Plebiscito 1988, fotografías de Álvaro Hoppe. Santiago: Galería Cebra y Haikén Ediciones, 2021.
“Aproximaciones feministas al retrato y al paisaje. Sobre las abuelas de Cinthya Santos-Briones y los tesoros de Zahara Gómez.” In Revista Sueño de la Razón 09, Luta e Poder (2020): 42-51.
“Feminismos y fotografía (de protesta).” LUR / Red de Investigación y Estudios Visuales. (September 2019)
“El (des)pliegue de una historia enterrada.” LUR / Red de Investigación y Estudios Visuales. (July 2019)
“Marcas de un borramiento: sobre Paz Errázuriz, Enrique Lihn y El Paseo Ahumada.” Atlas Imaginarios Visuales (Nov 2017).
“Sueño de la Razón, o la fotografía sudamericana como posibilidad” ATLAS Imaginarios Visuales (March 2017).
“Persistencias del retrato fotográfico.” ATLAS Imaginarios Visuales. (July 2016).
“Chile desde adentro. Notas sobre fotografía, memoria e historia.” ATLAS Imaginarios Visuales. (October 2015).

– Reviews

Immigration Nation (Review). The North American Congress on Latin America, NACLA. (August 14, 2020).
Marcelo Montecino, Con sangre en el ojo. In Una revisión al fotolibro Chileno, Ed. Horacio Fernández. Santiago: Fundación Sud Fotográfica, 2018. 196.
Ediciones económicas de la fotografía chilena. 3 volumes: Mauricio Valenzuela, Luis Weinstein, and Paz Errázuriz. In Una revisión al fotolibro Chileno, Ed. Horacio Fernández. Santiago: Fundación Sud Fotográfica, 2018. 210. Print.
MEMCH, El futuro es nuestro: nosotros lo haremos. In Una revisión al fotolibro Chileno, Ed. Horacio Fernández. Santiago: Fundación Sud Fotográfica, 2018. 228.
Junger Cerda, Catalina. El eje en la luna. In SUR. Revista de Fotolibros latinoamericanos. Edited by Leandro Villaro. 1.1 (December 2018): 38-39.
Fortuny, Natalia. Memorias fotográficas. Imagen y dictadura en la fotografía argentina contemporánea. Conversaciones del Cono Sur 2.2 (2016)
Fuck My Life (FML). Written by Xandra Ibarra. Directed by Evan Johnson. Performed by Xandra Ibarra aka La Chica Boom. The Wild Project and 11^th Annual Fresh Fruit Festival, New York, NY. e-misférica Decolonial Gesture 11.1 (2014)
de los Ríos, Valeria. Espectros de luz. Tecnologías visuales en la literatura latinoamericana. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 47.2 (2013): 366-69.
Franz, Carlos. La muralla enterrada. Eure: Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Urbanos Regionales 29.89 (2004): 109-12.

Honors, Awards and Affiliations

Academic and Professional Honors

Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow, The Expanding Photographic Archive of Feminist Movements in Chile (July 2021 – December 2022).
2020-2022 Faculty Lead, Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Office of the Provost at the Graduate Center, and the Center for the Humanities.
Principal Reviewer, FONDART Artistic and Research Grant, given by the Chilean National Council for the Arts and Culture [CNCA]. Nominated and elected to review all National and Regional research projects competing in the Area of Visual Arts: Photography. FONDART Grant Year cycle 2019 – 2020.
Invited by The Ph.D. Program in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages, The CUNY Graduate Center to teach a graduate seminar on Latin American photography criticism and history. Course title: Del espacio de acá: Photographic Discourses and Practices in/about Latin America. (Fall 2018).
Modern Languages Association (MLA) Assembly Delegate, elected to represent Community Colleges Faculty in the North East. (2018 – 2021)
PSC CUNY Research Grant, Type B (July 2018 – July 2019)
CUNY Book Completion Award (May 2018 – April 2019)
Stewart Travel Grant (CUNY, Spring 2018)
PSC CUNY Research Grant, Type A (July 2017 – July 2018)
PSC CUNY Research Grant, Type A (July 2016 – July 2017)
Stewart Travel Grant (CUNY, Spring 2016)
NYU Faculty Resource Network (Scholar-In-Residence, Summer 2015)
PSC CUNY Research Grant, Type B (July 2014 – July 2015)
BMCC Faculty Development Research Grant (July 2014 – July 2015)
FONDART Artistic and Research Grant, given by the Chilean National Council for the Arts and Culture [CNCA] (July 2012 – January 2014)
Faculty Development Grant, McDaniel College (Spring 2012)
Faculty Development Grant, McDaniel College (Fall 2011).
Arts & Sciences Dissertation Fellowship, Washington University in Saint Louis, August 2009 – May 2010.
Bryant Grant, Field Work Dissertation Grant, Washington University in Saint Louis. May –August 2009.
Graduate Student Fellowship, Washington University in St. Louis, August 2004 – May 2009.
B.A. Academic Excellence Award, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, December 2003.

Additional Information

Since 2017, Ángeles been involved in sanctuary work in NYC; in July 2018, she was one of the main organizers of the #WhatWouldYouPack action at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC. Ángeles is also member of the collective somoslacélula, which creates video-essays about pressing political issues. Their video-essay “Tactics of Solidarity in the Era of Mass Deportation” is featured on the Hemispheric Institute Ecologies of Migrant Care website

An interview on the same site, describes Ángeles’s experience in NSC’s volunteer accompaniment program, which pairs volunteers with individuals who have immigration court hearings or ICE check-ins in New York and New Jersey. Watch here:

Ángeles Donoso Macaya

* Bio photo by Paz Errázuriz