Overview
Irina R. Troconis is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies in the Department of Romance Studies. She holds a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures from New York University, and an MPhil Degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Cambridge (UK). Her areas of specialization include: Memory Studies, Venezuelan Studies, Politics and Performance, Affect Theory, Visual Culture, Material Culture, and Digital Humanities. She is the co-organizer of the online conversation series (Re)thinking Venezuela/(Re)pensando a Venezuela, currently in its fifth season.
Professor Troconis鈥檚 first book, (Duke University Press, 2025) explores through the lens of spectrality the memory narratives and practices developed around the figure of Hugo Ch谩vez in the decade following his death. She is also working on three new research projects. The first one examines how the recent cultural production connected to the Venezuelan diaspora engages with issues of nostalgia, materiality, and loss. The second one considers the politics of reenactment in Latin America by analyzing a selection of performances and documentaries produced in the last thirty years. The third one explores the changes new technologies have triggered in the memory narratives, practices, and theories that shape contemporary Latin American fiction.
Professor Troconis is also a CIVIC Advisory Board Member, a graduate field member of Media Studies, and of the Department of Performing and Media Arts, and a core faculty member of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Steering Committee. More information about LACS can be found .
Research Focus
- Venezuelan Studies
- Politics and Performance
- Critical Theory
- Affect Theory
- Memory Studies
- Material Culture
- Digital Humanities
Publications
鈥鈥傗傗"Ghosts, wounded butterflies, and other thin histories" (available here: 鈥傗傗傗傗傗傗傗)
鈥傗傗傗"Of Frogs and Ghosts: Tales of a Haunted Diaspora" (available here: )
French Kissing the Icon: Erotic Iconoclash and Political Subversion in Deborah Castillo鈥檚 The Emancipatory Kiss (2013) (available here: )
Memorias transl煤cidas: identidad, materialidad y p茅rdida en Cris谩lida de Pepe L贸pez (available here: )
La literatura nacional como anxiety bookshelf: Una conversaci贸n (pendiente) con Osdany Morales sobre Lengua materna (available here:
鈥淟eaky, Dead, and Restless: Afterdeath in Contemporary Venezuelan Fiction.鈥 2023, Latin American Literary Review, 50, no. 100.
"Presentaci贸n del dossier. Literatura y escritura hecha por mujeres en el siglo XXI: lenguaje y (re) posicionamientos posibles en la literatura latinoamericana contempor谩nea." Baciyelmo Vol. 16, No. 4, 2022. Co-edited with Lorena M. Vel谩squez.
"Unfinished Business: Visuality, Space and the State in (Post) Socialist Venezuela." Comparative Literature Studies Vol. 59, No. 3, 2022, pp 527-548.
鈥溾楶eque帽as rebeld铆as鈥: Cuerpo, materialidad y resistencia en Pelo malo (2013) de Mariana Rond贸n.鈥 Akademos. Volume 22, number 1 and 2 (2021). Available at:
Troconis, I. R. (2021). Crafting Nationness: DIY Venezuela in Deborah Castillo鈥檚 RAW and Violette Bule鈥檚 搁贰蚕鲍滨贰惭200鈮. Latin American Research Review, 56(2), 437鈥456. DOI:
鈥淓choes in the Desert: Digging Out the Disappeared in the Digital Age.鈥 The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory (MAST). Vol. 1, Issue 2: 鈥淢edia, Materiality, and Emergency鈥 (November 2020). Available at:
鈥淰iolette Bule: Subversive Echoes.鈥 In Violette Bule鈥檚 Echo Chamber Exhibit Catalogue. Houston: The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology (2020).
鈥淩AW: La carne del pasado.鈥 Tr贸pico Absoluto (October 2019). Available at:
with Alejandro Castro (eds.) Deborah Castillo: Radical Disobedience. New York: HemiPress, 2019.
Reviewed in Cuadernos de Literatura, Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana:
鈥淪pectral Remains: Under Hugo Ch谩vez鈥檚 Gaze.鈥 Esferas (May 2019): 192-201.
鈥淚nvocando el espectro: Pr谩cticas de la memoria en la Venezuela pos-Ch谩vez.鈥 Revista Iberoamericana. LXXXV. 266 (January-March 2019): 85-98.
鈥El Iluminado: Ilan Stavans and the Incongruity of the Anti-hero.鈥 In Stavans Unbound. Boston: Academic Studies Press (2019).
鈥淰enezuelan Literature.鈥 Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. Latin American Studies. Ed. Ben Vinson. New York: Oxford University Press (2019).
with Ilan Stavans. 鈥淰enezuelan-Americans.鈥 Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets. Latino Studies (2014).
Reviews of The Necromantic State
Tr贸pico absoluto,
ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America,
A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos,
Revista de Libros,
In the news
- 鈥極dyssea Americana鈥 art exhibit opens at The Soil Factory Sept. 4
- Your July 2025 reads
- Professor鈥檚 book probes afterlife of Hugo Ch谩vez in Venezuela
- Outstanding A&S teachers, advisors honored with 2024 awards
- Conference celebrates 40 years of Andean studies at Cornell
- Cornell celebrates 15 years at the heart of CNY Humanities Corridor
- Society for the Humanities 'Afterlives' theme draws record interest
- New curriculum requirements bring host of new courses to A&S
- Digital book gives a taste of Venezuelan performance artist
