Assistant Professor of Spanish

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), the international network Routes towards Sustainability and the emerging Laboratorio de Humanidades Ambientales de América Latina.

Languages spoken:

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

Research and/or Creative Works

Dr. Woolson’s current research is primarily framed by sustainability as a paradigm for interdisciplinary studies. To that end, her focus is on transcultural perspectives in ecocriticism, and biocultural diversity as an empirical approach to the study of identity and conservation, through works that enable an engagement with the politics of identity in a region rich in diverse worldviews. Another research interest involves studies in performance, as an interdisciplinary field that focuses not only on theatre, but also uses performance as a lens to study elements of social and cultural life, such as practices in everyday life, storytelling and performance art. Currently, she is completing a book that will bring to English audiences three recent plays by Argentine playwright Griselda Gambaro and she is working on a manuscript about ecocriticism in Latin America at the turn-of-the-millennium, which includes field research in Rapa Nui.

Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

(Under review) Searching for Light in the Darkness.Three plays by Griselda Gambaro. Prologue, plays’ introductions, translation, and notes by Maria Alessandra Woolson and Claudio Medeiros, foreword by Jean Graham-Jones.

2020 “A Sustainable Future for Latin America?” Special issue of A Contracorriente Edited by M.A. Woolson, No 17 No.2. Web.

2014  Re-engraving Assayer’s Initials in Potosi Cobs. English-Spanish edition. Co-authored with Emilio Paoletti. Buenos Aires: Editorial Dunken.

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

(Forthcoming 2024) ‘Repensar la sustentabilidad como propuesta ecopedagógica. Una revisión desde las humanidades ambientales en busca de transformación.’ Special Issue: “Eco-pedagogies and Hispanic Studies: Knowledge and Skills for the Anthropocene.” ALCES XXI. Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature & Film.

2019 “Teaching Ecocriticism And The Global South. A View of Latin American Environmental Thinking through the Environmental Humanities.” ESLA A Journal of Cultural and Literary Criticism, No 17. Web.

2018 “The Melting of Humankind. How Art Deepens our Dialogue about Climate Change.” ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America. Spring-summer: 26-29. Web. 

2015 “Sustainability as a Pedagogical Principle in Liberal Arts Education: Explorations from the Foreign Language classroom.” International Journal of Sustainability Education. 11 3: 23-34. Web. 

Chapters in Scholarly Books and Monographs

2024 “Reterritorializar el saber para emancipar la vida. Una mirada al legado de Enrique Leff en diálogo con una experiencia pedagógica desde el Norte.” Genesis of Environmental Thinking: A Festschrift in Honor of Enrique Leff, Eckart Boege, Ed. IISUNAM Press, Mexico.

2018 “The Gift of a Different Gaze: A Social-Environmental Imagination of Collective Meaning in Helen Escobedo’s Installations, 1997-2010.” RCEI Special Issue Natura Loquens/Natura Agens: In Dialogue and Interaction with the Environment. Carmen Flys & Juan I. Oliva, Eds. Universidad de La Laguna Press.

2016. “From Management to Governance: Rethinking Water Policy and Privatization on Easter Island."The Politics of Freshwater. Access, Conflict and Identity. Tamar Mayer & Catherine Ashcraft, Eds. Abingdon: Rutledge. Print.

Maria Woolson

Areas of Expertise and/or Research

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

Education

  • Ph.D. Spanish, The University of Arizona

CV

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Contact

Email:

maria.woolson@uvm.edu

Phone:
  • (802) 656-0723
Office Location:

522 Waterman

Website(s):

Courses Taught

  • SPAN 1100: Elementary I
  • SPAN 1200: Elementary II
  • SPAN 2100: Intermediate I
  • SPAN 3110: Composition & Conversation
  • SPAN 3120: Spanish Grammar
  • SPAN 3610: Analyzing Hispanic Literatures
  • HCOL 1000: Honors College Freshman Seminar, The Pursuit of Knowledge
  • HCOL 1500: Honors College Freshman Seminar, Climate Crisis and Latin America
  • HCOL 2000: Honors College Sophomore Seminar: Environment, Ecocriticism, and Being Global