Graduate Students

Karol Alzate

PhD Candidate 5115 Dwinelle Hall karol_alzatelondono@berkeley.edu Office Hours: M 12-1 pm, W 9:30-11 am

Miroslava Guzmán Pérez

My name is Miroslava Guzmán Pérez. I am a third year PhD student in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. I obtained my Master of Arts in Hispanic Languages and Literatures here at Cal in May 2021. I had previously completed a triple major in Spanish, French, and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine in 2018. My research lies broadly in Colonial Mexico and Nahuatl. More specifically I am interested in the process of translation from oral stories and traditions into Spanish as well as pictographs into standard western signs.

Luis Amaya Madrid

Luis Amaya Madrid is a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He received his BA in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of Arizona and his MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from the University of Guelph. He is interested in Latin American literature, Indigenous studies, and digital humanities.

Benito López Romero

Graduate Student 5116 Dwinelle Hall bmlopezr@berkeley.edu Office Hours: T, Th 9-10 am

Gabriela C. "Gabi" Rodríguez Lebrón

Gabriela C. “Gabi” Rodríguez Lebrón is a PhD student in the Hispanic Languages and Literatures program. She holds a B.A. from Colgate University, where she studied Spanish Literature and History. She completed two theses, one on nature in Garcilaso de la Vega’s poetry (High Honors) and another on texts written by Medieval female mystics (Honors). Her research interests include, but are not limited to Garcilaso de la Vega, Renaissance lyric (specifically bucolic poetry across traditions), the literary representations of nature, the Early Modern period, the history of ideas, mythology...

Gabriel Lesser

Gabriel Lesser is a Ph.D. student in Hispanic Languages and Literatures. His dissertation is about racial satire, caricatures, and nation-building in nineteenth-century Mexico and Brazil. He received a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation grant to conduct archival research in 2023. Prior to starting his doctorate, Gabriel earned his B.A. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University and worked at the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. At UCB, he has taught classes in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Isaac McQuinn

Graduate Student 5117 Dwinelle Hall isaac_mcquinn@berkeley.edu Office Hours: M, W 12-1 pm

Luisina Gentile

Graduate Student 5118 Dwinelle gentile@berkeley.edu Office Hours: T 11-12 pm, Th 12:30-1:30 pm

Alejandra Decker

Alejandra Decker is a Ph.D candidate in Hispanic Languages & Literatures and a Chancellor's Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research is on 19th century Latin American and Latinx literatures, science, and technology, with a special focus on mining literature and scientific writing in postcolonial Mexico. She has taught Spanish language and literature courses for both heritage speakers and foreign language learners.

Riley VanMeter

Graduate Student 5118 Dwinelle rileyvanmeter@berkeley.edu Office Hours: M, W 2-3 pm

Riley VanMeter is a Ph.D. Student in Romance Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley. He holds an M.A. in Romance Languages (2023) and a B.A. in International Business and Spanish (2022, Summa cum laude) from The University of Alabama. His research interests include morphosyntactic change and...