Book Launch - Gender Battles: Latin American Women, War, and Feminism

Gender Battles: Latin American Women, War, and Feminism by Vanesa Miseres uncovers the often-overlooked voices of Latin American women who engaged with war – not just as observers, but as journalists, memoirists, and activists – from the 19th to mid-20th centuries. Focusing on conflicts like the War of the Pacific, the World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War, Miseres shows how these women used their writing and organizing to challenge gender roles, navigate nationalism, and shape emerging feminist ideas. Blending gender studies and Latin American history, the book reveals war as both a political and deeply personal force, reshaping our understanding of feminist activism and Latin American identity.

Author:
Vanesa Miseres
Associate Professor of Spanish, University of Notre Dame
Kellogg Institute Faculty Fellow

Discussants:
Katherine Marino
Associate Professor of History
University of California at Los Angeles

Sebastian Diaz-Duhalde
Associate Professor of Spanish
Dartmouth College

Reception to follow. Cosponsored with the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

Vanesa Miseres is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Notre Dame and a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow. Her research focuses on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Latin American literature, with particular emphasis on gender, travel writing, war literature, women writers, and food studies. She is the author of Mujeres en tránsito and co-editor of Food Studies in Latin American Literature. Her latest book, Gender Battles: Latin American Women, War, and Feminism, was supported by prestigious fellowships, including a Humboldt Research Fellowship.

Katherine M. Marino is associate professor of history at UCLA specializing in twentieth-century US and Latin American history, with research focusing on women, gender, sexuality, race, human rights, US empire, and transnational feminism. She is the author of Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement and has published widely in prominent journals on these subjects.

Sebastian Diaz-Duhalde is associate professor of Spanish at Dartmouth College, where his teaching and research focus on 19th-century Latin American literature, visual culture, and the intersections of war, politics, and representation. His scholarship explores how cultural production reflects and shapes national identities during periods of conflict and transformation in Latin America. He holds a PhD and MA in romance languages and literatures from the University of Michigan.