Headshot of Dr.Laura Fernández

Dr. Laura Fernández

She/Her
Assistant Professor of Latin American, Latino, and Iberian Studies
Curriculum Vitae

  • Profile

    Laura Fernández, assistant professor of Latinx studies at the University of Richmond, received a degree in Latin American and Iberian Cultural Studies from the University of Notre Dame (M.A.) and a Ph.D. in Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Latinx Studies from The Ohio State University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Dr. Fernández is currently working on a book project based on her dissertation, “Giving the Midwestern White Gaze a Latinx Spin: Mediated Latinx Lives in the American Heartland.” She is a specialist in Latinx popular culture whose research covers a number of areas including Othered Latinidades, rural Latinx narratives, and the intersections of race, ethnicity, and gender of Latinx representations in U.S. pop culture. Her most recent article, “Latinidad Served on the Side: The Latinx Blanqueamiento in Midwestern-Set TV Series,” published in the journal Chiricú, addresses the erasure of a Latinx character’s ethnic identity to maintain the mythos of the Midwest as the American heartland.

  • Publications
    Journal Articles

    Fernandez, Laura. “Latinidad Served on the Side: The Latinx Blanqueamiento in Midwestern-Set TV Series.” (Vol. 6, No. 1), Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures (2021): Vol. 6, No. 1.

    Book Chapters

    Fernandez, Laura. “Laughing at or with Latinos?: Changing the Scope of the Camera’s Narrative Gaze in Midwest-based Comedies.” Latinx TV in the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Frederick Aldama. University of Arizona Press, Spring 2022.

    Theresa Delgadillo, Laura Fernandez, Leila Vieira, and Marie Lerma. “Ohio Latinx Festivals Creating New Publics.” Chapter submission to anthology Building Sustainable Worlds: Latinx Placemaking in the Midwest. Eds. Theresa Delgadillo, Claire Fox, Ramón Rivera-Servera, Geraldo Cadava. University of Illinois Press, Spring 2022.

    Fernandez, Laura. “Transnational Queerings and Sense8.” The Routledge Companion to Gender, Sex and Latin American Culture. Ed. Frederick L. Aldama. New York: Routledge, 2018. 222-230.

    Fernandez, Laura. “Canta y no llores: Life & Latinidad in Children’s Animation.” The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture. Ed. Frederick L. Aldama. New York: Routledge, 2016. 68-75.