We kick off the Managing Editor Spotlight with Senior Managing Editor, Laura Colaneri!

Specialty Area(s) of Research: 20th and 21st century Latin American literature; dictatorships and violence; gender and sexuality studies

Academic Affiliation: University of Chicago

Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

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1. What is your role at SPR? I am just officially beginning my role as the Senior Managing Editor of SPR, although I was sort of doing it last year? Well, I was listed as the Senior Managing Editor in Volume 7’s front matter, in any case. Previously I was the Managing Editor of Production beginning in 2016 and was an Associate Editor of Production from July 2014-December 2015. I also have served as a peer reviewer every year since SPR’s inception. 

2. What does your current SPR role entail? As the Senior Managing Editor of SPR, my job is to mentor our Managing Editors and support them through each stage of the publication process. I will be helping train peer reviewers and associate editors on how to provide constructive feedback and edit articles so that they are clear, effective, and accurate ways of communicating original scholarship to our readers. I also will help with producing the final laid out pages that transform draft manuscripts living in our computer files into a professional journal.

3. What is your previous experience with SPR? I have published three book reviews with SPR: Volume 6: Bishop, Karen Elizabeth. The Space of Disappearance: A Narrative Commons in the Ruins of Argentine State Terror, Volume 2: Brandt, Jorge. Historia secreta de Chile 2, and Volume 1: Estrada, Oswaldo. Ser mujer y estar presente: Disidencias de género en la literatura mexicana contemporánea.

4. What is your current academic affiliation and what are your main areas of research? I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies program of the department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. I received both my B.A. in English and Spanish literature and my M.A. in Spanish literature from the State University of New York, University at Albany. My dissertation research focuses on the sinister and political terror in the cultural imaginary of the Southern Cone dictatorships.

5. What is an interesting or fun fact about yourself? I love all things spooky and spend a lot of both my spare time and my research time watching horror movies.

6. Can we find you on socia media? @laura_colaneri on Twitter!

Thank you for your years of hard work and dedication to our growing graduate student journal, Laura!