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BIO

Maria Woolson’s work brings together the worldviews of science and humanities through teaching and research. Her background combines formal education in the natural sciences and Latin American literature and cultural studies, and her primary areas of study include the environmental humanities and representations of the 20th and 21st centuries.

She has published on a variety of fields, including the edited bilingual volume “A Sustainable Future for Latin America?” (2020), and numerous articles in ecocriticism, performance studies and pedagogy. At the intersection of interdisciplinary work and traditional knowledge, her chapter “From Management to Governance: Rethinking Water Policy and Privatization on Easter Island” (2016) addresses water governance and sustainability in the remote island of Rapa Nui, Chile.  She also published a book collaboration of a historic study of 8 Reals Cobs, the hand-made coins of colonial Potosí, titled  Re-engraving Assayer’s Initials in Potosi Cobs  (2013) and she has a second book collaboration, Searching for Light in the Darkness. Three plays by Griselda Gambaro under review, and expected in 2025.

Maria serves on the boards of the Environmental section for LASA (Latin American Studies Association), and of NECLAS (the New England Council of Latin American Studies). She is also an active member of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), the European Association for the Study of Culture, literature and Environment (EASCLE), and the emerging Laboratorio de Humanidades Ambientales de América Latina.

Languages spoken:

• Spanish, Italian, English (native/near-native)
• Portuguese (advanced)
• French (reading)

Courses

• SPAN 1100: Elementary I 
• SPAN 1200: Elementary II 
• SPAN 2100: Intermediate I 
• SPAN 2202: Intermediate II SU 
• SPAN 3110: Composition & Conversation: Justice & Environment 
• SPAN 3120: Spanish Grammar 
• SPAN 3610: Analyzing Hispanic Literatures 
• SPAN 3670: Latin America: Revolution to Globalization 
• SPAN 4550: Topics in Culture & Literature: Decolonializing Environment 
• SPAN 4600: Topics in Literature: Performing Trauma 
• SPAN 4993: Independent Study** 
• HCOL 1000: Honors College Freshman Seminar, The Pursuit of Knowledge 
• HCOL 1000: Honors College Freshman Seminar, The History of Pandemics 
• HCOL 1000: Honors College Freshman Seminar, Minds and Bodies
• HCOL 1500: Honors College Freshman Seminar, Climate Crisis and Latin America 
• HCOL 2000: Honors College Sophomore Seminar: Environment, Ecocriticism, and Being Global 

Publications

Publications (PDF)

Awards and Achievements

• 2024-2025 - ����̽̽’s College of Arts & Sciences Seed Grant “A Topographic Archive for Preserving an Endangered Language: Rapa Nui” (Chile). Research project in progress.  
• 2024 - ����̽̽’s OVPR EXPRESS Grant (Chile-Argentina).  
• 2019-2020 - ����̽̽’s College of Arts & Sciences Small Research Grant. Systemic Impats of Lithium Extraction in the Argentine Puna. 
• 2018 ����̽̽’s - Humanities Ctr., Lattie F. Coor Programming Grants in Humanities & Arts. Minimum Monument a climate-action project with Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo. 
• 2014 - Assoc. of Borderland Studies Annual Award, Runner-up for “Transforming the Border, Transforming the Migrant: Biometrics and the Imagination’ Borderization.” 
• 2012 - College of Humanities Finalist (Spanish), ABOR Doctoral Dissertation Award.  
• 2012 - Tinker Foundation Dissertation Research Grant in Latin American Studies (Chile).  
• 2012 College of Humanities Graduate Dissertation Award, University of Arizona. 

Achievements – Special events 

• 2023 – Organizer and co-producer Environmental Humanities Fall Discussion Series. A collaboration between the U. of Vermont SWLC and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Faculty of Letters. Presenters: Ingrid Molderez, KU Leuven, Belgium; Pablo Chiuminatto, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Sofía Rosa, RIHA (Env, Humanities Network); Maria Woolson, University of Vermont; Andrea Casals, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Ignacio López Vicuña, University of Vermont.
• 2023 – Workshop Facilitator “Sustainability Ethics and The Politics of Life. A Workshop.” Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Italy, May 2nd. 
• 2022 – Workshop Facilitador “Pedagogías Transformadoras: el caso de las humanidades ambientales,” Environ. Humanities Symposium, Pontificia U. Católica de Chile, Santiago.   
• 2022 Workshop Facilitator “Educating in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities,” Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Campus Villarica, Villarica. November 23rd-28th. 
• 2021 – Designer and curator of , with technical support by Christian Woolson. The library features works from colonial Potosí Cobs, published works by scholar Emilio Paoletti and published conference proceedings from the Argentine federation . Inauguration talk May 31 (In Spanish). 
• 2020 - Trans-national, trans-disciplinary and trans-cultural exchange project for students from University of Vermont and the Pontificia Catholic University of Chile. October. 
• 2018 - Organizer and co-producer Brazilian sculptor Nele Azevedo, . An “urban action” or performance in ice. City Hall, Burlington, VT.  ����̽̽’s Feverish World Symposium. October 20th (multilingual university-wide event). Nele Azevedo's Minimum Monument

Area(s) of expertise

Environmental humanities, 20th and 21st century Latin American literature and cultural studies, ecocriticism, ethnicity and cultural identity, performance studies, postcolonial theory and language pedagogy