Esther Leah Gabara
Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies
Education
Ph.D., Stanford University 2001
Helena Rubenstein Fellow in Critical Theory, Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum of American Art 1998 - 1999
M.A., Stanford University 1997
B.A., University of Pennsylvania 1993
Overview
Esther Gabara works with art, literature, and visual culture from modern and contemporary Latin America. Central issues in her research are the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, theories and practices of non-mainstream modernisms, and representations of race and gender. Her teaching in the departments of Romance Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University covers visual theory, Latin American modernism, photography, Pop Art, Mexican feminism, and contemporary art and cultural production in the Americas. Currently she is working on a book manuscript, "Non-Literary Fiction: Invention and Interventions in Contemporary Art of the Americas," preparing an exhibition on Pop Art in the Americas, and researching the contemporary articulation of the colonial relationship between Latin America and Spain through the prism of art, economics, and immigration.
Expertise
Contemporary Latin American art, Mexican visual culture & politics, Latin American modernisms, contemporary urban cultural production in the AmericasContact Information
212 Language Center, Department of Romance Studies, Durham, NC 27708-0257
Box 90257, Department of Romance Studies, Durham, NC 27708-0257
Office hours:
Tuesdays 10:30-12 and by appointment. Location varies between 212 Languages and Global Brazil Lab, Smith Warehouse, Bay 5.
(919) 660-3100
Links
Galvez, Alyshia. “Review of Errant Modernism.” E Misférica, vol. 7, 2010.
Foster, David William. “Errant Modernism: The Ethos of Photography in Mexico and Brazil.” Luso Brazilian Review, vol. 47, 2010, pp. 227–29.
Carranza, L. E. “Errant Modernism: The Ethos of Photography in Mexico and Brazil.” Choice, vol. 47, Sept. 2009.
O Toole, Gavin. “The Errors of the Avant-Garde.” The Latin American Review of Books, July 2009.
Fraser, Benjamin. “Review of Errant Modernism.” Chasqui, vol. 38, 2009, pp. 185–87.
Gabara, E. “Cannon and camera - Photography and colonialism in the Américas.” English Language Notes, vol. 44, no. 2, Jan. 2006. Scopus, doi:10.1215/00138282-44.2.45. Full Text
Gabara, E. “Facing Brazil: The problem of portraiture and a modernist sublime.” New Centennial Review, vol. 4, no. 2, Jan. 2004, pp. 33–76. Scopus, doi:10.1353/ncr.2005.0006. Full Text
Gabara, E. L. “Review of Primitivism and Identity in Latin America: Essays on Art, Literature, and Culture. Eds. Erik Camayd-Freixas and José Eduardo González.” Latin American Literary Review, vol. 61, 2003, pp. 113–15.
Gabara, E. L. “Review of Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico since 1940. Eds. Gilbert Joseph, Anne Rubenstein, and Eric Zolov.” Nepantla: Views From South, vol. 4, 2003, pp. 201–07.
Gabara, E. L. Engendering Nation: Las bellas artes públicas and the Mexican Photo-essay, 1920-1940. Vol. 49, 2001, pp. 139–54.