Amanda M. Smith approaches literary expression as a point of entry into spatialities effaced from other official records. She proposes a reading practice of rigorous intertextuality to recover geographic textures smoothed by homogenizing processes of spatial integration. In this talk, she addresses the stakes of such a spatial reading by exploring the legacy of misreading in contemporary Amazonia.

Smith is Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature in the Department of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in 20th and 21st-century Latin American literatures and cultures, working across the fields of Indigenous studies and the spatial humanities, with emphasis on the Andean and Amazonian regions. Her current project, tentatively titled Novel Maps, examines how literature and cartography have both overlapped and clashed in transforming Amazonia into a landscape of extraction.

The Center for Cultural Studies hosts a weekly Wednesday colloquium featuring work by faculty and visitors. The sessions consist of a 40-45 minute presentation followed by discussion. We gather at noon, with presentations beginning at 12:15 PM. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lunches; the Center provides coffee, tea, and cookies.

All Center for Cultural Studies events are free and open to the public. Staff assistance is provided by the Institute for Humanities Research.