Samuel Ginsburg, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies, Spanish and American Studies and Culture

Head of Section, Comparative Ethnic Studies

 

Biography

Samuel Ginsburg is an Assistant Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Race at Washington State University. His research focuses on 21^st 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.

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

Books

Articles

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “‘In this bleak abyss’: The Speculative Autobiographical Writings of Carmen María Machado and Esmé Weijun Wang,” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 2024, pp. 1-20.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “Catfish and Nanobots: Invasive Species and Eco-critical Futures in Alejandro Rojas Medina’s Chunga Maya,” Posthumanism and Latin(x) American Science Fiction, Córdoba, edited by A., Maguire and E.A, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2023, pp 143–164.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. ‘It Ain’t Easy Being a Robot in the Caribbean:’ Resisting Utopian Visions of Puerto Rican Techno-Colonialism through Street Art.” Voces del caribe, vol. 13, no.1, 2022, pp. 1352-1385.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “Bombs, Bodies, and Ghosts: Navigating Rhetorical Legacies of Nuclear Technology in Recent Caribbean Science Fiction,” Mitologías Hoy, vol. 22, 2020, pp. 191-208.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “Future Visions of Dominican History in Odilius Vlak’s Crónicas historiológicas,” Latin American Literary Review, vol. 46, no. 91, 2019, pp. 12-21.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “Sonic Modernity and Decolonizing Counter-Sounds in the Poetry of Urayoán Noel,” Latin American Research Review, vol. 54, no. 1, 2019, pp. 135–50.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “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, vol. 5, no. 2, article 3, 2018, pp. 1-14.

• Ginsburg, Samuel. “Women and National Membership in Manuel Galich’s El tren amarillo,” Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language & Culture. 2013-14, vol. I & II, pp. 63-75.

Book Reviews

• “Speculating the Future from Our Apocalyptic Present,” Review of Black Utopias, The Latinx Files, and Migrant Futures. American Studies. May 2022.

• “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.