Paola Uparela, PhD
Assistant Professor, Colonial Latin American Studies.
Background
Ph.D. in Spanish, University of Notre Dame (2015-2019). 2020 Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Graduate School Award in Humanities
Research
Paola Uparela holds a degree in Literature from Universidad de los Andes – Colombia (2010) and a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of Notre Dame (2019; Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Award in the Humanities). She specializes in Early Modern, colonial, and transatlantic cultural studies; Latin American and Spanish literature; the history of medicine, art, and science; gender and sexuality studies; visual and material culture; medical humanities; Indigenous studies; and biopolitics.
Her book, Invaginaciones coloniales. Mirada, genitalidad y (de)generación en la Modernidad temprana (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana Vervuert, 2024), examines the emergence of visual regimes of the female body in medicine, literature, and art, as well as the historical, material, and symbolic violences that made the female body ultravisible, intelligible, and reducible to its sexual and reproductive organs. Invaginaciones coloniales has received six recognitions: the Klaus D. Vervuert Hispanic Essay Award, the SECOLAS Alfred B. Thomas Book Award, the LASA Visual Culture Studies Book Prize, the AEGS Victoria Urbano Critical Monograph Award, the MACLAS Arthur P. Whitaker Book Prize, and the International Latino Book Award – Best Women’s Issues Book (honorable mention).
Her publications on Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, genitality, and biopolitics have received the AEGS Victoria Urbano Award (2018), the Feministas Unidas Award (2019), and the LASA José María Arguedas Essay Award (2023). Her research on Bartolomé de las Casas, childbirth, and sexuality received the LASA Culture, Power & Politics Award (2022). Her article on the virginity verification of Catalina de Erauso received the SECOLAS Sturgis Leavitt Award (2023), the LASA Sylvia Molloy Essay Award (honorable mention, 2023), the LASA Visual Culture Best Article Award (honorable mention, 2023), and the GEMELA Best Collaborative Edition Award (2024).
She is currently a Professor of Colonial Studies at the University of Florida, Associate Editor of the Latin American Research Review (LARR), a member of the Executive Committee of LASA Colonial, a founding member of the Societas Lascasiana, and Vice President of the Association of Gender and Sexualities Studies (AEGS). For the 2026–2027 academic year, she has been invited as a Visiting Professor and Research Associate in the Women’s Studies program at the Divinity School of Harvard University.
Contact Information
Email: puparela@ufl.edu
Office: 384 Grinter Hall – Center for Latin American Studies
Affiliate Appointments:
- Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida.
- Department of Gender, Sexualities, and Women’s Studies Research, University of Florida.
- Center for European Studies, University of Florida.
External Appointments:
- 2024-2029. Executive committee member, Renaissance and Early Modern forum, Modern Languages Association – MLA.
- 2025-2030. Executive committee member, Colonial Section, Latin America Studies Association – LASA.
- 2024-present. Executive committee member, Societas Lascasiana (founding member).