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Candela Marini, Ph.D. - Milwaukee School of Engineering. Milwaukee, WI, US

Candela Marini, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor | Milwaukee School of Engineering

Milwaukee, WI, UNITED STATES

Dr. Candela Marini’s areas of expertise include Latin American Studies and Visual Culture.

Spotlight

Education, Licensure and Certification (4)

Ph.D.: Romance Studies, Duke University 2018

M.A.: Romance Studies, Duke University 2014

M.A.: Latin American Studies, Freie Universitat - Berlin 2012

B.A.: History, Torcuato di Tella University 2008

Biography

Dr. Candela Marini is an assistant professor in the Humanities, Social Science, and Communication Department at MSOE. She is the coordinator of the Spanish minor and the co-director of the MSOE University Scholars Honors Program. She offers courses on US and Latin American history, cultural and visual studies, and, Spanish. Her research focuses on Latin American literature and visual culture, with a specialization in the Southern Cone. Her current book project, War, Photography, and Visual Citizens: Territorial and Visual Expansion in the Construction of Chile and Argentina, spotlights the role and impact of photographers within an expanded public sphere and growing state power. Forthcoming projects also include attention to contemporary reflections on violence and historical memory, particularly in Gothic-oriented graphic novels, short stories, and films.

Areas of Expertise (11)

Spanish

History

Illustrated Press

Photography

Visual Culture

Latin American Studies

Cultural History

War Studies

19th Century

Service-Learning

Literature

Accomplishments (7)

Caxton Club Fellowship

Rare Book School, 2021

Honorable Mention – Best Dissertation in the Nineteenth Century (professional)

Latin American Studies Association – LASA., 2019

Evan Frankel Fellowship for Ph.D. Students in the Humanities

Duke University, NC, 2017-2018

Andrew W. Mellon Conference Travel Grant

Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke University, NC, 2016, 2017

Graduate School Conference Travel Award

Duke University, NC, 2015, 2016, 2017

Summer Research Fellowship

Graduate School, Duke University, NC, 2016

Congress Travel Grant

Latin American Studies Association, 2015

Affiliations (3)

  • Latin American Studies Association (LASA): Member
  • Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA): Member
  • American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA): Member

Languages (4)

  • Spanish
  • English
  • French
  • German

Social

Media Appearances (1)

Host- Latin American Studies and "Historia" Channels

New Books Network  

Candela Marini hosts the Latin American Studies channel of the New Books Network and the "Historia" channel of the New Books Network-Spanish.

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Event and Speaking Appearances (9)

Arte para un imperialismo criollo: la pintura chilena a mediados del siglo XIX

Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA),  Loyola University, Chicago, IL, November 14-17, 2019

Empty Battlefields. Bate & Ca.’s photographic rendering of the Triple Alliance War

Latin American Visual Culture Symposium  Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, November 8-10, 2019

Panel Respondent: “Teatralidades populares y subjetividades (in)visibles en el Río de la Plata

Latin American Studies Association (LASA)  Universidad Tres de Febrero, Buenos Aires, July 10-13, 2019

War Photography through a National Lens: Díaz & Spencer’s Views of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883)

American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)’s 2019 Annual Meeting  Georgetown University, Washington, DC, March 7-10, 2019

El patriotismo del Correo del Domingo (1864-1868): ficciones de guerra y soldados

IX Congreso Internacional de Teoría e Historia de las Artes  Centro Argentino de Investigadores de Arte (CAIA), Sep 27-30, 2017

The Invisible Conquest: The Pacification of the Araucania and ethnographic photography

Modernidades (In)Dependencias (Neo)Colonialismo. II Simposio de la Sección de Estudios del Cono Sur  Latin American Studies Association (LASA) July 19- 22, 2017

The Indian Revenant: Images of the indigenous in the Argentine nation-building process

Tracing Types: Comparative Analyses of Nineteenth-Century Sketches  Ghent University, 3-4 June 2016

Empty Images of War: Photography of Territorial Expansion in Chile and Argentina (1860s-1880s)

XXXIV International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA)  Hilton Midtown New York, 27-30 May 2016

Landscapes of Progress: Zeballos’ photographs in Viaje al País de los Araucanos

63rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (SECOLAS)  Hotel Caribe, Cartagena de Indias, 9- 13 March 2016

Research Grants (4)

Research Travel Award

Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program, UW – Madison 

2020

Summer Faculty Development Grant

MSOE 

2019

Summer Research Fellowship, Graduate School

Duke University, NC. 

2016

Duke Brazil Initiative Research Grant

Global Brazil Lab, Duke University, NC. 

2014

Selected Publications (6)

The Paraguayan War Imagined (1865 - 1870)

Latin American Literature in Transition, Vol. II, 1800-1870

Eds. Peluffo, A. and Briggs, R.

2022 Cambridge University Press

War Photography: Diaz & Spencer's Coverage of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883)

FOTOCINEMA: REVISTA CIENTÍFICA DE CINE Y FOTOGRAFÍA

Marini, C.

2021 In the study of 19th-century Latin American photography, the photographic capture of war and military operations has implicitly been equated with the eye of national states, understanding that photographers would want to show a positive portrayal of the military forces. However, war photography as a language of state power was not the point of departure. In most of the earlier examples of war photography, it was private photographers who first ventured into military conflicts almost as soon as the new visual technology was made available. They saw war as both an important historical event and a commercial opportunity. Experiencing with a technology that forced them to produce images of war stripped of battle action while trying to capitalize on the diverse interests in these conflicts, most photographers offered a rendering of war of ambiguous political meanings. In this essay, Dr. Marini argues that the photographs of the War of the Pacific taken by the studio Díaz & Spencer are one of the first examples of the successful use of war photography for nation-building purposes, that is, as national propaganda. Photographers had the challenge to create impressive, apologetic and heroic captures of the military forces, and Díaz & Spencer succeeded in creating a visual narrative congruent with Chilean official discourses, consolidating, rather than challenging, the Chilean state view of the war. Equally important, this alignment of political views was accomplished on account of Díaz and Spencer’s initiative—not that of Chilean state officials.

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Muertos-vivos pop en tiempos de crisis: El zombi en la literatura caribeña contemporánea

The Latin Americanist

Marini, C.

2018 Tradicionalmente pertenecientes al mundo de las novelas y películas de terror, en los últimos años los zombis han logrado franquear también estos límites y convivir más que nunca con los vivos: en marchas políticas, performances de protesta, libros, historietas, televisión y cine. Su difusión metafórica se debe en buena medida a la maleabilidad que define al zombi. El zombi es un disfraz, una estrategia para llamar la atención, una figura ahistórica y estetizada. Se trata de un cuerpo vacío (susceptible de ser condimentado según las circunstancias) y de un objeto sin consciencia, ni voluntad (se puede hacer de él lo que se quiera). Paradójicamente, aprovechándonos de estas condiciones continuamos su condena, reproduciendo los gestos de explotación que nos horrorizan, usando las características que lo vuelven víctima y monstruo.

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El patriotismo del Correo del Domingo: ficciones de guerra y soldados

InMediaciones de la Comunicación

Marini, C.

2017 This article explores the visual coverage of past and contemporary events offered by the illustrated journal Correo del Domingo during its first years of publication (1864-1866), particularly in relation to the Triple Alliance War (1865-1870). Given that the journal was one of the first publications in the region to offer forms of visual journalism, the first part of the essay analyzes the blurry boundaries between lithographs of informative, journalistic purpose and those of more markedly fictional nature. The second part of the article argues that the journal takes advantage of the malleable uses of the lithographic image to overcome the visual coverage problems of a war that did not dovetail with the official discourse of heroism and patriotism that the journal supported

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Pasados que no pasan: la violencia en la Argentina de ayer y hoy en Cacería de María Teresa Andruetto

Miradas desobedientes: María Teresa Andruetto ante la crítica

Eds. Brignole, F. and Pubill, C.

2016

Sonido y disonancia. La música en la cultura latinoamericana

Critical Reviews on Latin American Research 4:2 (2015)

Marini, C. co-edited with Denise Kripper

2015