Óscar Iván Useche
Position title: Lecturer
Email: ouseche@wisc.edu
Address:
Helen C. White Hall, Rm. 7166
Personal Statement
Dr. Useche research interests include the influence of science, technology and industry on Spanish cultural production, and the relations between dynamics of social, political, and economic transformation and the construction of national identity in Spain during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is presently at work on a new book project that focuses on failed inventions, scientific deception, and literary forgery at the turn of the twentieth century in Spain.
Research Interests
Modern Hispanic literatures and cultures, Material Culture Studies, Science and Technology Studies
Degrees and Institutions
- BS, Electrical Engineering, Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, 1999
- MA, Latin American Literature, Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, 2005
- MA, Hispanic Literature, Indiana University, Bloomington, 2007
- MPhil, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University, 2011
- PhD, Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University, 2014
Recent Publications
“Leonardo Torres Quevedo’s Automata and the Consolidation of Technological Regenerationism.” Beyond Human: Decentring the Anthropocene in Spanish Ecocriticism, edited by Maryann Leone and Shanna Lino, U of Toronto P, 2023.
Founders of the Future: The Science and Industry of Spanish Modernization. Bucknell UP, 2022.
“A Story of Failed Conversion: The Impossible Refashioning of Tradition in Galdós’s Rosalía.” Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, vol. 74, no. 4, 2020.
“Laureano Calderón’s Social Foundry: Industrial Imagination and Social Prescription in Restoration Spain.” Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, 2018.
Courses Taught
Professor Useche believes in the importance of promoting the interdisciplinary trends that govern current modes of cultural analysis. His courses focus on tracing relationships among history, culture, and society, guiding students to identify problems common to both the class topics and their own social environments. Through this effort, he abides by the ethical sense that guides the humanities and social sciences today, according to which teaching and research should be conducted to improve the understanding of a diverse society. Dr. Useche has taught courses on different periods and problems related to the Hispanic world, as well as a wide variety of literature classes.
Courses Taught:
ENGL-100 (Introduction to College Composition)
ENGL-177 (Literature and Popular Culture — Narco Narratives)