Search Redlands

Resources for

More Info
We want to reassure the U of R community that we are far from the wildfires, and our air quality remains safe. The University continues to operate business as usual. Our hearts are with those impacted by the fires, including our colleagues at Woodbury University.
More Information
portrait-placeholder-420px

Ivonne Gordon-Vailakis Ph.D.

Professor
Spanish

Education

  • Ph.D., Latin American Literature, University of California, Irvine
  • specialization in Contemporary Latin American Poetry, and Literary Theory with an emphasis Chicano Studies
  • M.A., Spanish, San Diego State University
  • with emphasis on Latin American and Peninsular Literature

Professional Background

Previous Teaching Experience

  • University of California, San Diego, Visiting Assistant Professor, International Relations and Pacific Studies 1989-1991

Professional Experience

  • Editor of several poetry journals, translator, professor for court interpreting translating certificate

Affiliations

  • Modern Literature Association (MLA)
  • Association of Spanish and Portuguese Teachers (ASPT)
  • Ecuatorianistas Association (EA)
  • Latina/os Network, Faculty Advisor since 1992

Areas of Expertise

  • Human Rights Literature

  • Travel Literature

  • Exile, Diaspora, Immigration

  • Literature of the Fantastic

  • Literature of the Body

  • Literature Representing the Other in Latin America

  • Border Writers: Literature of the Border/Borderlands

  • Latin American Contemporary Poetry

  • Gabriela Mistral

  • Jorge Carrera Andrade

  • Women Writers

  • Myths and Rituals

Publications

Books

Meditar de sirenas: Sweden: Simon Editor, 2013

El barro blasfemo: Blasphemous Clay. Madrid, España: 2009

Manzanilla del insomnio. Quito, Ecuador: El Conejo Press, 2002.

Colibríes en el exilio. Quito, Ecuador: El Conejo Press, 1997.

Chicano Literary Prize: 1985-1987: University of California, Irvine, 1988.

Nuestrario. Mexico: Impretei Press, 1987.

 

Book Chapters

"A Hungry Wolf: The Mask and the Spectacle of Gender in Gabriela Mistral" in The Audacious Traveler: Gabriela Mistral, ed. Marjorie Agosín, (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2003).

"Running Borders: La Llorona as a Mode of Resistance" Culture and Society: Dialoguing Issues in Chicana Scholarship, ed. María Herrera-Sobek, (University of California Press, 2000).

 

Scholarly Articles

"La marginalización de la literatura ecuatoriana." Estudios de literatura ecuatoriana. (Forthcoming)

"Jorge Carrera Andrade." Hispanic Literatura Enciclopedia. (Forthcoming)

"Mientras más deseo más tentación: Lo carnavalesco en La casa del sano placer de Alicia Yánez Cossío: "Letras del Ecuador (Forthcoming)

"Búsqueda de memoria: el poeta sin cielo Jorge Carrera Andrade,"Homenaje a Jorge Carrera Andrade, Kipus: Revista Andina de letras, No. 15, (2002-2003).

"La trasgresión en la voz maternal en Gabriela Mistral" Alpha, No. 19, (2003).

"Estaba la pájara pinta sentadita en otro verde limón: Gabriela Mistral y la otredad en su poesía." Quimera, (Barcelona, España, 2001).

"El mar como espacio de resistencia en la poesía de Gabriela Mistral" Alpha., No. 15, (1999).

 

Creative Writing

Poetry: Anthologies:

"The Foreigner" and other poems: in Women's Writing Anthology: Honoring other Women Poets,(forthcoming).

"To Wash Your Feet" and other poems: in Prometeo: Medellin, Colombia, 2009.

"El buda" and other poems: in Cuando sale el sol. ed. Rei Berroa (Santo Domingo: Editorial Banco Central, 2008).

"La maleta estaba llena," and other poems, Writing Towards Hope: The Literature of Human Rights in Latin America, ed. Marjorie Agosín, (Yale University Press: 2006).

"Las plazas," "Como huesos albinos," and other poems, in Mujeres mirando al Sur: Antología de poetas suramericanas en los U.S.A. ed. Zulema Moret, (Spain: Ediciones Torremoza, 2004). 97-104.

 

Awards and service

  • Professor sought for international event 2016
  • Honored Guest at Cultural Center in Santiago Chile (2014)
  • Honored Guest to International Poetry Festival, El Salvador (2014)
  • Honored Guest at Cultural Center in Carmen del Viboral, Antioquia, Colombia (2013)
  • Named Honored Poet of new Cultural Movement: Gesta de Cantores: A cultural group with no boundaries or borders (2012)
  • Invited as Honored Guest Poet to Medellin's Cultural Center, Cerro del Angel (2012)
  • Writing Award for EKAMEA, Greece (2010)
  • Invited to read at International Poetry Festival, Medellín, Colombia(2009)
  • Invited poet to read at Library of Congress, Washington, D.C
  • Finalist of Brazil's International Poetry Contest, for manuscript I Dream with Two Pillows (2005)
  • Oxford Round Table Discussant, "Women's Rights," Lincoln College, Oxford, England. (2004)
  • Poetry Award "Jorge Carrera Andrade" for the book, Manzanilla del insomnio. (2003)
  • Award for Outstanding Research/Creative Activity, U. of Redlands
  • Fulbright Senior Research Scholar: The Trouble of Travels: Jewish Diaspora in Ecuador, (1999)
  • Advisor of the Year Award, U. of Redlands
  • Finalist of the Most Prestigious Award in Latin America, "Casa de las Américas" for Bilingual manuscript, Hummingbirds in Exile.
  • Mortar Board Professor of the Year Award

Presentations

  • "Marginality and Ecuadorian Literature," Literature Conference, University of Louisville. (2012)
  • "Geographies of a Poet," Twentieth International Literature Conference, University of Louisville, Kentucky (2012)
  • "An Identity Has Multiple Sides," Celebrating Hispanic and Cultural Diversity Month, SUNY, New York (2012)
  • "A University without walls: Service learning within the Humanities," HERA Conference, San Francisco, California. (2011)
  • "I am Word, Celebrating Hispanic Month, Western University, Kentucky (2011)
  • "Identity and Travels in the Poetry of Jorge Carrera Andrade," International Conference on Travels, Berlin, Germany (2009)
  • "Erotic Graffiti," Disjunctions Conference: English Dept. University of California, Riverside. (2003)