Carolina Herrera-Venegas

Carolina Herrera-Venegas is a scholar of 20th and 21st century Latin American literature, performance, and visual culture, with a focus on feminist, queer, and decolonial thought. Her research examines how aesthetic practices by Latin American artists and activists unsettle colonial constructions of gender and sexuality, proposing methodologies for the decolonization of sex and gender in the region. Her work is guided by Latin American feminist theory, decoloniality, and critical theory.

Her current project investigates how performance, literature, and street interventions across Chile, Peru, and Bolivia generate epistemic, political, and aesthetic critiques of modern/colonial gender systems. This work emphasizes the philosophical and political potency of art and activism as forms of knowledge production.

In addition to her research, Herrera-Venegas has extensive training in Spanish language instruction and has taught Spanish at all levels and across multiple modalities. She is currently developing a pedagogical project that bridges literature, culture, and the teaching of Spanish for heritage speakers through art-based materials.

She has taught courses in Latin American literature and culture, and queer cultural studies in diverse academic and community settings in Chile and the United States. Her pedagogy centers collaboration, mentorship, and cross-cultural approaches to identity, gender, and sexuality.

Pronouns: she/her

Languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese

• Ph.D. in Spanish, University of California-Riverside, 2025
• M.A. in Spanish, University of California-Riverside, 2020
• B.A. In Education and Philosophy, Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, 2018