Miguel Cabanas

Miguel A. Cabañas is Associate Professor of Latin American and Chicano/Latino Studies at Michigan State University. He is the author of The Cultural “Other” in Nineteenth-Century Travel Narratives: How the United States and Latin America Described Each Other (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). He is edited a special volume of Latin American Perspectives entitled “Imagined Narcoscapes: Narco-Culture, and the Politics of Representation” (March 2014). He has also edited with Gary Totten, Jeanne Dubino, Veronica Salles Reese, Politics, Identity, and Mobility in Travel Writing. New York: Routledge, 2015.His present research project is a monograph that deals with the global War on Drugs and urban violence in Mexico, Colombia, and the United States. His research focuses on travel literature, Latin American and North American literatures and cultures, with a special emphasis in popular culture (film, music, telenovelas, comics). In 2008-2009, he was Co-Director of Peace and Justice Studies at MSU. He is core-faculty of Chicano/Latino Studies (CLS) and Global Studies in the Arts and the Humanities (GSAH), and the Center for Caribbean and Latin American Studies at Michigan State University. He has been a visiting researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City and at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. He also has taught in the Literature Master program at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa (UAS) and was affiliated faculty to the Masters Program, Investigación de Estudios Culturales, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia (2007- 2010). Miguel was the graduate adviser for Spanish (2012-2014 and 2019-2020) in the department of Romance and Classical Studies. Currently he is the faculty advisor to the MSU Study Abroad program in Valencia, Spain (Fall 2018-present). He serves as Associate Chair of the Romance and Classical Studies program (2016-2017; 2019-present). He is the organizer of the 2018 Symposium Migration studies and the Humanist Perspective (http://migrations.web.cal.msu.edu). He has worked with the group that organizes the MSU Latinx Film Festival https://msulatinxfilmfestival.com.Degree: Ph.D. in Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Connecticut         Research Interest: Violence and Drug trafficking (The War on Drugs in Colombia, Mexico, and the United States); Travel literature; Popular Culture (music, telenovelas, comics); Latin American Literature and Culture; Chicano/Latino Studies;  World Literature; Globalization and Diasporas; Cultural  Studies; Film; Literary Theory; 19th-Century Short FictionMiguel’s Hobbies:Miguel enjoys playing soccer, running, and biking.Miguel is also an accomplished musician and a singer. He has performed with different vocal groups such as El Coro Universitario de Salamanca, Colby 8 in Colby College, and the Arts Chorale of Greater Lansing. He plays the guitar and sings in the Lansing local band named Cuatro Sur. This band has performed in the Lansing area and plays Rumba Flamenca and Latin music (son, cumbia, etc).