Hernan Garcia
Associate Professor of Spanish
319 Manoogian Hall
906 West Warren
Detroit, MI 48201
Department
Hernan Garcia
Hernán Manuel García earned his Ph.D. in Latin American Literature and Culture at the University of Kansas in 2011. At WSU, he is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of CMLLC, where he teaches courses in contemporary Mexican literary, film and cultural studies. Before joining the faculty at WSU, he was visiting assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
Dr. García’s main area of teaching and research is contemporary Mexican literary, film and cultural studies.
Research
Dr. García's first book, "La globalización desfigurada o la postglobalización imaginada: La estética hacker en el cyberpunk mexicano" (Ediciones Eón, 2019), proposes an imaginative representation of globalization though Science Fiction in order to revisit the study of globalization. Although the study of globalization may seem to be over explored, the book highlights that contemporary science fiction offers an innovative approach to study globalization through imaginative and speculative representations of its effects. With this in mind, he offers an analysis of global networks, cyberspace, and digital technologies from the peripheral gaze of Mexican agents on the verge of becoming low-tech cyborgs as they experience the information highway. Dr. García's second book project tentatively entitled, "Dysfunctional Mexican Low-Tech Cyborgs: Illness and Disability in the Periphery of the Information Highway," will propose the analysis of the Mexican cyborg character from the lenses of Disability Studies.
This idea emerged directly from his further interest and readings in Latin American Science Fiction literature and criticism, and by noticing that all of the cyborg characters in his first book experienced a mental illness (depression, anxiety, nostalgia) or a physical disability (visual impairment, amputations, chronic illness). In this book, Dr.García will pointout that illnesses and disabilities in low-tech cyborgs metaphorically represent the use of outdated and counterfeited technology in underdeveloped societies. The book will analyze how marginal individuals operating second-hand hardware, and using obsolete software, embody an ill and disabled agent during the information age. This will allow Dr. García to articulate and explore issues like “technology gap” and “digital divide” as a sort of disability that illustrates current social and cultural inequalities related to the access to digital technologies in countries like Mexico.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas. August, 2011
- M.A., San Diego State University, San Diego, California. December 2001
- B.A., San Diego Sate University. San Diego, California. December 1998
Awards and grants
Dr. García is a 2016-2017 WSU Humanities Center Faculty Fellow.
Selected publications
- "La globalización desfigurada o la post-globalización imaginada: Hacker en la estética cyberpunk (post)mexicana." México: Ediciones Eón, 2019 (forthcoming)
- “Texto y contexto del cyberpunk mexicano en la década del noventa”. Alambique: Revista Académica de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía. 5.2 (2018): Article 5
- “Hacia una poética de la tecnología periférica: Post-cyberpunk y picaresca 2.0 en Sleep dealer de Alex Rivera”. Revista Iberoamericana LXXXIII. 259-260 (Abril-Septiembre 2017): 327-344
- “Carne eres y en máquina te convertirás: El cuerpo post-humano en La primera calle de la soledad de Gerardo H. Porcayo”. Polifonía Scholarly Journal. 4.1 (2014): 4-24
- “Tecnociencia y cibercultura en México: Hackers en el cuento cyberpunk mexicano.” Revista Iberoamericana LXXVIII.238-239 (Enero-Junio 2012): 329-348