DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

Mauricio Oportus Preller holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies from Northwestern University, an M.A. in Contemporary Philosophy from Universidad Diego Portales, and a B.A. in Political Science from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. As a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, he instructs courses on Latin American literatures and cultures from the colonial period to the present. His teaching foregrounds the exclusionary logics that have historically shaped narratives of nation-building and state formation in the region—logics that, he argues, continue to structure cultural and political life in Latin America today.

Guided by the conviction that teaching is a form of world-building, Mauricio conceives of the classroom as a collaborative space where creativity, intellectual rigor, and collective inquiry thrive. He prioritizes fostering empathetic, participatory, and inclusive environments in which critical thinking is inseparable from community-building. His pedagogy is deeply attuned to the diversity of student learning styles and offers multiple forms of engagement and assessment. By integrating digital media and creative assignments, his courses provide students with the tools to produce original, intellectually engaged work while cultivating teamwork, interpersonal skills, and collaborative learning as essential dimensions of critical thought.

As a scholar of modern Latin American literature and culture, Mauricio’s research bridges literary and legal texts to reassess the modern Latin American novel beyond its complicity with state power. His work highlights the novel’s capacity to expose the structures of marginalization and violence embedded in the foundational narratives of state consolidation across the region. His articles on law and literature in Latin America have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Hispanic Review and Dibur: Literary Journal. He is also editing a critical volume of the collected works of Venezuelan writer Tomás Michelena—materials he uncovered through archival research—which will be published by Editorial El Número Yo in 2026.

Extending his research and teaching into the public humanities, Mauricio co-created “Te leíste el texto?,” a political philosophy podcast for non-specialized audiences in Chile and Latin America, whose episodes have been downloaded over 30,000 times to date. His reflections on podcasting, digital media, and the public humanities will appear in his forthcoming chapter, “The Voice as Guest: Podcasts and the Popularization of the Humanities,” in The Palgrave Handbook of Humanities Podcasting (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026).