Isabella Vergara C (Ph.D., University of California, Irvine) is a scholar of 20^thand 21st Latin(x) American poetry, literature, visual arts, and feminism. Her book project, Poetic Traces, examines how Latin(x) American poets and artists use fragile, ephemeral and precarious  materials—such as dust, breath, and sound—as poetic forms that resist fixity and closure to challenge conventional approaches to memory and our interactions with the past. Her scholarly contributions include articles in journals such as Discourse, Liminalities, and The Latin American Literary Review, among others. Her research has received support from the Graduate Division, Humanities Commons, and the Critical Theory Emphasis at UC, Irvine, as well as the Office of Fellowships at Northwestern University. Before joining the Program in Latin American Studies, Vergara taught in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University (2023-2024).