Biography
Eduardo Ledesma was born in Barcelona (Spain) in 1972 and moved to Chicago in 1984. After a decade as a practicing Structural Engineer he became a scholar of literature, film and new media.
Research Interests
20th and 21st century Latin American (including Brazil) and Iberian literature and film. Catalan literature and film. Media and cultural studies. Modernism(s). Avant-garde and neo-avant-garde poetry. Electronic literature and new media arts (digital poetry, hypertext, blog-narratives, locative fiction, cyberculture). Documentary and experimental film. The intersection between technology and disability studies. Word and Image relations. Luso-Hispanic transatlantic connections. Intersections between engineering and culture (science and technology studies, Digital Humanities).
Research Description
SINGLE-AUTHOR BOOKS
Ledesma, Eduardo. Radical Poetry: Aesthetics, Politics, Technology and the Ibero-American Avant-Gardes (1900-2015). State University of New York Press. Series: Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture, Jorge J. E. Gracia and Rosemary Feal, eds. (November 2016). [Reviewed in: Midwest Book Review, Chasqui, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Hispanic Review (review forthcoming) A Contracorriente (review forthcoming)]
Ledesma, Eduardo. Cinemas of Marginality: Experimental, Avant-Garde and Documentary Film in Ibero-America (Substantially complete. Under Advance Contract with SUNY Press).
Ledesma, Eduardo. Blind Cinema: Visually Impaired Filmmakers and Technologies of Sight (In Progress. Initial Stages, funded by NEH Summer Stipend 2019).
EDITED VOLUMES
Ledesma, Eduardo, and Elena Delgado, eds. The Routledge Companion to Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Spain: Ideas, Practices, Imaginings. Routledge (In Progress).
REFEREED ARTICLES
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Blind Cinema: Reframing Visual Impairment in La niña sombra [Shadow Girl] (Chile 2016). Under Review.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Cell Phone Cinema: Latin American Horror Flicks in the Post-digital Age.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 53.3(October 2019): 821-854.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Staging the Spanish Civil War: History and Reenactment in Joris Ivens’ The Spanish Earth (1937).” Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 3.3 (November 2019).
Ledesma, Eduardo. “’Lembras-te de quando era tudo diferente?’ Concrete Poetry and Revolution in Portugal.” Luso Brazilian Review 55.1 (Summer 2018): 51-84.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Intermediality and Hispano-Argentine Experimental Film: Subverting Media, Transgressing Borders with Super 8.” Revista Hispánica Moderna 70.2 (December 2017): 117-141.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Ciencia-ficción digital iberoamericana (mutantes, ciborgs y entes virtuales): La Red y la literatura electrónica del siglo XXI.” Revista Iberoamericana 83.259-260. Special Issue on Science Fiction in Latin America. Ed. by Silvia Kurlat Ares. (April-September 2017): 305-326.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “The Blind Gaze: Visual Impairment and Haptic Filmmaking in João Júlio Antunes’ O jogo (Brazil, 2010).” Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 14.1 (March 2017): 23-39. [Reprinted in Disability Arts and Culture: Methods and Approaches. Ed. Petra Kuppers. Bristol: Intellect Books (April 2019)].
Ledesma, Eduardo. “The Poetics and Politics of Computer Code in Latin America: Codework, Code Art, and Live Coding.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 49.1 (March 2015): 91-120.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Helena Lumbreras’ Field for Men (1973): Midway between Latin American Third Cinema and the Barcelona School.” Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 11.3 (Fall 2014): 271-288.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Intermediality and Spanish Experimental Cinema: Text and Image Interactions in the Lyrical Films of the Barcelona School.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 14.3 (Fall 2013): 254-274.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Catalan Futurism(s) and Technology: Poetry, Painting, Architecture and Film.” International Yearbook of Futurism Studies 3.1. Special issue on Iberian Futurisms. Ed. by Günter Berghaus. De Gruyter (2013): 248-280.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Close Readings of the Historic and Digital Avant-gardes.” Hybrid Storyspaces: Redefining the Critical Enterprise in Twenty-First Century Hispanic Literature. Eds. Debra Castillo and Christine Henseler. Hispanic Issues Online 9 (2012): 237-262.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Literatura digital, Concretismo y la vanguardia histórica en Brasil: ¿qué tiene de viejo lo nuevo?” Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese Literatures in the Digital Age (New Technologies and the Literary). Eds. Luis Correa-Díaz and Scott Weintraub. Special issue of Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 14 (2010): 261-280.
REFEREED BOOK CHAPTERS
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Pocket Cinema and the Transnational Turn: Cell Films as Global(ized) Counter-Cinema.” Invited Essay for Transnational Humans and Transnationalism in the Humanities: Crossing Boundaries in the Americas, Eds. Max Paul Friedman and Núria Vilanova. In preparation.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “C$U%B#A#+53: Glitches, Viruses and Failures in Cuban and Cuban-American Digital Culture.” Digital Encounters in Contemporary Latin American Cultural Production. Eds. Cecily Raynor and Rhian Lewis. (Under Contract with University of Toronto Press, Latinoamericana Series). (Forthcoming 2021).
Ledesma, Eduardo. “When Violence meets Experimentalism: Unraveling Cinematic Suture in Raúl Ruiz’s Tres Tristes Tigres (1968) and Pablo Larraín’s Post Mortem (2010).” Pablo Larraín. Eds. Gary D. Rhodes and Dr. Robert Singer. ReFocus: The International Director Series. (Forthcoming 2020).
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Teaching Experimental Latin American Poetry: Visual, Concrete, Performative, Digital.” Teaching Contemporary Latin American Poetries. Eds. Jill S. Kuhnheim and Melanie Nicholson. MLA “Options in Teaching” Series. (December 2019): 119-133.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “How to Explain Comics to a Dead Hare: Intertextuality and Neo-surrealism in Rosana Antolí’s Graphic Novel Pareidolia (2014).” Consequential Art: Comics Culture in Contemporary Spain. Eds. Matthew J. Marr and Sam Amago. University of Toronto Press (August 2019): 220-251.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Online Activist Eco-Poetry: Techno-Cannibalism, Digital Indigeneity, and Ecological Resistance in Brazil.” Online Activism in Latin America. Ed. Hilda Chacón. Routledge. (August 2018): 234-51.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “André Vallias, y el tema de la traducción: TraklTakt un poema-collage digital de Brasil.” Poesía y poéticas digitales/electrónicas/tecnos/New-Media en América Latina: Definiciones y exploraciones. Eds. Luis Correa-Díaz and Scott Weintraub. Bogotá, Colombia: Ediciones Universidad Central. (January 2016): 74-98.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “From Avant-Garde to the Digital Age: Reconceptualizing Experimental Catalan Poetry.” The Future of Text and Image: Collected Essays on Literary and Visual Conjunctures. Eds. Ofra Amihay and Lauren Walsh. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2012): 231-270.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Through ‘Their’ Eyes: Internal and External Focalizing Agents in the Representation of Children and Violence in Iberian and Latin American Film.” Representing History, Class, and Gender in Spain and Latin America: Children and Adolescents in Film. Eds. Carolina Rocha and Georgia Seminet. Palgrave Macmillan. (2012): 151-170.
INTERVIEW
Guest, Haden and Ledesma, Eduardo. “Ad Astra per Aspera: An Interview with Patricio Guzmán.” Cineaste 36.6 (2011): 20-5. [Reprinted in Patricio Guzmán: Images of the 21st Century. Ed. Dimitris Kerkinos. Thessaloniki: Thessaloniki International Film Festival Publications (2013): 40-53.]
NON-REFEREED ARTICLES AND CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
González de Canales Carcereny, Julia, Jörg Türschmann, Josetxo Cerdán, Miguel Fernández Labayen, Beatriz Sarlo, Francisco Rodríguez Pastoriza and Eduardo Ledesma. “Des(encuentros): Estéticas globales hispánicas: literatura, cine y television.” L'Atalante: Revista de Estudios Cinematográficos 26 (Julio 2018) [Online Film Journal] (July-August 2018): 122-41.
Correa-Díaz, Luis; Eduardo Ledesma et al. Dossier: “Poesía digital latinoamericana: muestrario crítico y creativo.” AErea. Revista Hispanoamericana de Poesía 10 (2016): 113-168.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Poetry, Intermediality and Spanish Experimental Film: From the European Avant-Garde to the Barcelona School.” Cine-Lit VII: Essays on Hispanic Film and Fiction. Ed. Guy H. Wood, Conference Proceedings Cine-Lit VII, February 2010, Portland, OR(Spring 2012).
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Terrorism Revisited: Modernisme, Art, and Anarchy in the City of Bombs.” Romance Sphere (Online Journal of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University), 1:1 (2011).
INVITED BOOK REVIEWS
Ledesma, Eduardo. Review: El momento ultraísta: Orígenes, fundación y lanzamiento de un movimiento de vanguardia. Andrew A. Anderson. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 96.2. Reviews of Books. (April 2019): 348-50.
Ledesma, Eduardo. Review: Latin American Technopoetics: Scientific Explorations in New Media. Scott Weintraub. Arizona Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 22 (2018): 305-7.
Ledesma, Eduardo. Review: Ism, Ism, Ism / Ismo, Ismo, Ismo: Experimental Cinema in Latin America. Eds. Jesse Lerner and Luciano Piazza. Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 15.2(2018): 270-3.
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Consumption as Resistance in the Age of Late Capitalism.” Review: Delirious Consumption: Aesthetics and Consumer Capitalism in Mexico and Brazil. Sergio Delgado Moya. ReVista. Harvard DRCLAS (Winter 2018): 78-80.
Ledesma, Eduardo. Review: Disability Studies and Spanish Culture. Films, Novels, the Comic and the Public Exhibition. Benjamin Fraser. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 92.2 (2015): 300-2.
DICTIONARY ENTRIES
Ledesma, Eduardo. Entries for “Los abrazos rotos (Almodóvar, 2009)” and “Seis puntos sobre Emma (Pérez Toledo, 2011).” Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Film. Alex Pinar, ed. Rowman and Littlefield (2018): 3-5; 340-2.
FOREWORD
Ledesma, Eduardo. “Apresentação – Violência, contracultura e masculinidades em crise.” In Homem em cena: a máscara da masculinidade. Juan Filipe Stacul. Clock-Book, Brazil. (February 2017).
Education
Romance Languages and Literatures, PhD, Harvard University
PhD Romance Languages and Literatures. Harvard University. 2012.
MA Hispanic Literature. University of Illinois-Chicago. 2006.
MS Structural Engineering. Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. 1999.
BS Civil Engineering. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1995.
Grants
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend 2019
Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Faculty Fellowship 2019
Center for Advanced Study - Fellowship (Spring 2017).
Hispanex Program Award (Spanish Ministry of Culture) 2019
Campus Research Board Humanities Release Time Spring 2015
Campus Research Board Book Publication Subvention Award (Spring 2016).
Campus Research Board Research Assistant Funds (2016-17).
Fulbright Research Grant (Spain) - 2009-10
Courses Taught
SPAN 468 - Impure Genres: Latin American Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror in Literature and Film (1900-2016) - FALL 2016
SPAN 468 Megalópolis: Latin American Urban Culture in Literature, Film, and Other Media. - SPRING 2018
SPAN 535 Seminar in Spanish-American Lit. (From Futurism to Facebook: Technology and Latin American Cultural Production) FALL 2014
SPAN 572 Theory and Literary Criticism (including Latin American and Iberian Cultural Studies) FALL 2014
SPAN 535 Seminar in Spanish-American Lit. (The Latin American and Iberian Documentary Film) - SPRING 2013, FALL 2017
SPAN 316 Latin American Literatures II: The Latin American Short Story (Science, Technology and the Occult)
SPAN 326 Fiction Film in Latin America (Contemporary Narratives of Globalization) - FALL 2016
SPAN 326 Cultural Studies in the Americas II: Contemporary Luso-Hispanic Film
SPAN 254 Introduction to Cultural Analysis
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Associate Professor, Program in Comparative and World Literature
Associate Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Associate Professor, European Union Center
Associate Professor, Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies
Associate Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Honors & Awards
UIUC Conrad Humanities Scholar 2019-24.
UIUC Campus Distinguished Promotion Award 2018-19.
UIUC Helen Corley Petit Scholar (LAS) 2018-19.
UIUC LEAP (Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors) Scholar Award 2017-19.
IPRH Prize for Research in the Humanities 2015-16.
IPRH Prize for Research in the Humanities (Honorable Mention) 2019-20.
Recent Publications
Ledesma, E. (2024). An epilogue for a leading light: the privilege of co-editing with Elena Delgado. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 25(3), 377-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/14636204.2024.2384319
Ledesma, E. (2023). C$U%B#A#+53: Glitches, Viruses, and Failures in Cuban and Cuban-American Digital Culture. In Digital Encounters: Envisioning Connectivity in Latin American Cultural Production (pp. 107-138). University of Toronto press. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487538804-007
Ledesma, E. (2020). Staging the Spanish Civil War: History and Re-enactment in Joris Ivens’ The Spanish Earth (1937). Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, 4(1), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2020.1684716
Ledesma, E. (2020). When Violence Meets Experimentalism: Unraveling Cinematic Suture in Raúl Ruiz’s Tres Tristes Tigres and Pablo Larraín’s Post Mortem. In L. Hatry (Ed.), ReFocus: The Films of Pablo Larraín (pp. 89-112). (ReFocus: The International Directors Series). Edinburgh University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv182jrcx.10
Ledesma, E. (2019). Cell phone cinema: Latin American horror flicks in the post-digital age. Revista de Estudios Hispanicos, 53(3), 821-854. https://doi.org/10.1353/rvs.2019.0068