Samuel Ginsburg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Assistant Professor of American Studies and Culture
Head of Section, Comparative Ethnic Studies
Samuel Ginsburg is an Assistant Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Race at Washington State University. His research focuses on 21st century Caribbean and Latinx science fiction, looking at how authors, filmmakers and artists have negotiated histories of techno-colonialism and techno-authoritarianism. His scholarship has appeared in Latin American Research Review, Latin American Literary Review, and Alambique. His other research interests include Afro-Futurism, Cold War rhetoric and literature, eco-criticism, and the intersections between technology and popular culture.
Education
2018 Ph.D., Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures, University of Texas at Austin.
Dissertation: “The Cyborg Caribbean: Bodies, Technology, and the Struggle for (Post)Humanity in 21st-Century Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican Science Fiction”
2012 M.A., Latin American and Caribbean Studies, New York University
Thesis: “No te metas con mi patria: Cortázar’s Construction of Argentinidad”
2008 B.A., English, University of Pittsburgh
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- “‘It Ain’t Easy Being a Robot in the Caribbean:’ Resisting Utopian Visions of Puerto Rican Techno-Colonialism through Street Art.” Voces del caribe, 2022.
- “Bombs, Bodies, and Ghosts: Navigating Rhetorical Legacies of Nuclear Technology in Recent Caribbean Science Fiction,” Mitologías Hoy. 2020.
- “Future Visions of Dominican History in Odilius Vlak’s Crónicas historiológicas,” Latin American Literary Review. 2019.
- “Sonic Modernity and Decolonizing Counter-Sounds in the Poetry of Urayoán Noel,” Latin American Research Review. 2019.
- “La adaptación afro-futurística y el placer como supervivencia en Los Pueblos Silenciosos de Elena Palacios Ramé,” Alambique: Revista Académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía. 2018.
- “Women and National Membership in Manuel Galich’s El tren amarillo,” Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language & Culture. 2015.
Book Reviews
- “Condomnauts, by Yoss” Science Fiction Foundation (online). 2019.
- “Tentacle, by Rita Indiana Hernández,” Full-Stop.net. May 2019
- “The Artifact, by Germán Sierra,” Full-Stop.net. December 2018
- “Planet/Cuba: Art, Culture and the Future of the Island, by Rachel Price,” E3W Review of Books. Spring 2017.
- “Programmed Visions: Software and Memory, by Wendy Hui Kyong Chun,” E3W Review of Books. Spring 2015.
- “Más allá del umbral: autoras hispanoamericanas y el oficio de la escritura,” Hispamérica. 2014.
Interviews
- “Pterocast: Pedro Cabiya,” with Laura Boria and Mónica Ocasio. Pterodáctilo. Fall 2019.
- “Interview with Dr. José Montelongo.” E3W Review of Books. Spring 2016.
- “PteroCast: Interview with Urayoán Noel,” with James Staig. Pterodáctilo. Spring 2016.
Translations
- “Mario Masvidal: What is a Public Intellectual to do in Today’s Cuba?” Cuba Counterpoints. 20 May 2015.
- “Velia Cecilia Bobes: Perspectives on Democratization.” Cuba Counterpoints. 19 May 2015.