Carmen Haydée Rivera, Ph.D.
Office: Janer
Phone: (787) 764-0000 ext. 89638
Email: ch.rivera@upr.edu
Academic Degree:
Ph.D., Northeastern University, 2001
Areas of Expertise:
US Latinx Literature, Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora, Hispanophone Caribbean Literature, Modern and Contemporary American Literature
About:
Carmen Haydée Rivera was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Boston, Massachusetts by parents who insisted on keeping Puerto Rican family traditions and customs alive within the US context. She moved back to the island after spending years away from her birthplace. She received her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in British and American Literature from the University of Puerto Rico. She later returned to Boston and earned a Ph.D. in English, specializing in Multiethnic Literatures of the United States from Northeastern University. Her teaching and research interests include American Literature, Diasporic Puerto Rican Writers in the US, US Latinx Literature, Literature of the Hispanophone Caribbean in Diaspora, and Women’s Studies.
She has served in various administrative positions, including Interim Chair of the English Department, ESL Coordinator, Graduate Program Coordinator, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Interim Dean of Academic Affairs, and Interim Chancellor for the UPR-Rio Piedras campus, among others.
Her publications include two co-edited collections of essays, Cuba and Puerto Rico: Transdisciplinary Approaches to History, Literature, and Culture (2023) and Writing Off the Hyphen: New Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora (2008). Sheis also the author of a critical biography, Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros (2009), as well as a collection of interviews, Diasporic Journeys: Interviews with Puerto Rican Writers in the United Sates (2023). Additional critical articles under herauthorship appear in collections and journals such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction, The Ethnic Studies Review, CENTRO Journal, Camino Real, Revista Op-Cit, Revista Umbral, Pasaporte Latino, New West Indian Guide, Latino/aResearch Review, Caribbean Studies, Diálogo, and Sargasso.
Undergraduate Courses:
- English 3218 Fiction (Short Story and the Novel)
- English 3221 Introduction to Literature (Essays, Short Stories, Novels)
- English 3222 Introduction to Literature (Poetry and Drama)
- English 3251 American Literature I: Colonial Period to the Civil War
- English 3252 American Literature II: Civil War to the Present
- English 3285 The PR Experience: Literature of the PR Diaspora
- English 4218 American Literature and the American Dream
- English 4256 U.S. Latino/a Literature
Graduate Courses:
- English 6029 Diasporic Puerto Rican Literature
- English 6049 Contemporary US Latino/a Writers
- English 6470 Realism and Naturalism in American Literature
- English 8301 Literature from the Hispanophone Caribbean in Diaspora