Elizabeth Barrios

Elizabeth’s research straddles several fields: Latin American literary and cultural studies, film studies, and the environmental humanities, particularly in the burgeoning field of energy humanities. She is currently working on a book that examines 70-years of Venezuelan oil narratives, environmental art, and oil industry propaganda in Venezuela. Entitled Failures of the Imagination: Reckoning with The Times of Oil in Venezuelan Cultural Production, the project argues that the creation of societies that do not run on oil will not simply involve economic and technological change–it will require cultural work: the retelling of established histories/stories, the disruption of habits, and the reshaping of the imagination itself.

Within the Modern Languages and Cultures Department, Elizabeth teaches various levels of language instruction, including Spanish for Heritage Speakers. Her literature and cultural studies courses have explored the intersection between new-media remixes and established forms of Latin American artistic production, the legacies of diasporas in and from Latin America, as well as Afro-Latinx literatures. She also teaches interdisciplinary courses about environmental art and the political history of climate change.