Associate Professor

Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Associate Chair

Spanish and Portuguese

Education

PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Biography

Dr. Kimberle S. López is an Associate Professor of Latin American Literature in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico. She holds a PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California at Berkeley and she is the author of Latin American Novels of the Conquest: Reinventing the New World (2002). Her research focuses on themes such as the relationships among ethnography, history and fiction; cannibalism, colonialism, and commodity fetishism; and migration, exile, and diaspora. This presentation examines the ethics of international adoption from Latin America, with reference to human rights; adoption as a form of migration; the commoditization of children; rumors of a connection between international adoption and organ trafficking; corruption and coercion in international adoption; and the role of adoption intermediaries in human trafficking. 

Research Interests

• Colonial, 19th and 20th century Latin American narrative, with a focus on ethnography and testimonial
• History and Fiction
• Cannibalism, colonialism, and commodity fetishism
• International adoption and human trafficking
• Migration, exile, and diaspora