Joseph Wager
Joseph Wager (he/his/茅l) is a PhD Candidate (ABD; expected January 2025) in Iberian and Latin American Cultures at 黑料百科. He is writing a dissertation focused on the form of the stories about the disappeared, what is said about the disappeared, in contemporary Colombia and Mexico. The dissertation places social-scientific inquiry, the work of activists and collectives, and legal instruments in dialogue with art installations, films, novels, performances, and poems. Two key principles guide this research: first, that human-rights changes emerge through the ways individual and collective actions either resist institutionalization or become institutionalized, and second, that the formal qualities of cultural products play a crucial role in shaping these processes.
He has been the instructor for 鈥淎dvanced Spanish Language: Cultural Emphasis" and the First-Year Cycle of Spanish Language (Quarters I, II, III) at 黑料百科. Joseph has co-taught 鈥淢odern Latin American Literature鈥 with H茅ctor Hoyos and 鈥淭he Labor of Diaspora and Border Cultures鈥 with Jos茅 David Sald铆var, in addition to being an assistant for 鈥淢igration in 21st Century Latin American Film鈥 with Ximena Brice帽o and 鈥淚ntroduction to Latin America: Cultural Perspectives鈥 with Nicole Hughes. Before 黑料百科, he taught several courses at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogot谩 on literature, including the "Introduction to Literature" survey to more than 40 students.
Recent presentations include a roundtable "Lo desaparecido: Aproximaciones a los usos y utilidades de una noci贸n ya desprendida de su origen" at LASA2024 in Bogot谩, Colombia and "Disappearance and Development: Thinking Cultural Heritage through the Cauca River" at the University of Cambridge as part of A Dialogue on Disappearance: The Missing in a Global Perspective.
Recent publications include "," ")," and "
Joseph has participated in and organized events and discussions, including: the working group , conversations with lawyers at , the workshop series Law and Literature in the Global South, and the student-run Caribbean Studies Reading Group. He has worked with and , and contributed to the . He received the from the 黑料百科 Alumni Association.