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My doctoral project examines Central American modernism (1907-1971) in terms of the historical production of its cultural illegibility within Latin American and global modernist historiographies. Challenging centre–periphery paradigms, it reframes Central America as a critical node of transcontinental exchange. Conceptualising the isthmus as a site of compression, I argue that Central American modernism emerged through discontinuous (weak) circuits of transmission—diasporic trajectories, periodical culture, provisional institutions, and sustained mediation—rather than through stable movements or programmatic affiliation, producing a distinctive set of aesthetic traditions within Latin American avant-garde cultural production. Drawing on archival research and comparative analysis of literary and visual works, the project traces how figures such as Luis Cardoza y Aragón, June Beer, Salarrué, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Armando Morales, Margarita Azurdia, and Trixie Briceño negotiated modernist influxes through strategies of folding, mis/identification, and selective assimilation/cannibalisation.

My project is generously funded by the Merton College Modern European Languages Scholarship and the Clarendon Fund.

In the lead-up to my DPhil research, I graduated from the Universidad de Costa Rica with a BA and a Licenciatura in History of Art, as well as a BPhil and a Licenciatura in Philosophy. I subsequently completed an International Master in Managing Art & Cultural Heritage in Global Markets at the University of Glasgow, an MA in Art Markets at ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa in association with ULisboa, and an MA in Arts and Culture Studies at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam.

My prior research examined the epistemic and historiographical formation of aesthetic discourse and artistic practice in Central America. My Licenciatura thesis in History of Art analysed Max Jiménez as a seminal figure whose visual and literary work challenged hegemonic accounts of national identity through formal experimentation. In parallel, my Licenciatura dissertation in Philosophy traced the emergence of an aesthetic turn in Costa Rican thought (c. 1977–1995), examining its intellectual lineages and institutional consolidation. More recently, my MA thesis advanced a history of Surrealism in Central America as an ephemeral, diasporic formation shaped by postcolonial split identities, collaborative encounters, and displacement.

I have written on contemporary screen studies, 19th-century aesthetics, Bergson’s metaphysical thought, avant-garde Costa Rican art, and contemporary Spanish cinema.

           

Teaching, Research and Curating
  • Lecturer, History of Art Department, Universidad de Costa Rica (2022-2023): Courses taught include Art Theory, Renaissance Art, Iconography,  Western 19th and 20th-Century Art, Pre-Columbian Art, and Costa Rican Art.
  • Teaching and Research Assistant, School of Philosophy and CIICLA (Centro de Investigación en Identidad y Cultura Latinoamericanas), Universidad de Costa Rica (2020-2022)

  • Appointed by the Administrative Board of the Museo de Arte Costarricense (MAC) as state curator (2021-present)

     

Publications
  • ‘Yo quiero que tú sufras lo que yo sufro: Adaptación, género cinematográfico y violencia en Carne Trémula (1997) de Pedro Almodóvar.’ Fotocinema. Revista Científica De Cine Y Fotografía, no. 32 (2026): 45-66. (In press).
  • ‘El periplo internacional de Max Jiménez: Mestizaje, sincretismo e itinerancia en la encrucijada genesíaca del arte de vanguardia en Costa Rica.’ ACCADERE. Revista de Historia del Arte, no. 7 (2024): 11-33. https://doi.org/10.25145/j.histarte.2024.07.01
  • ‘Bergson en San Junípero: Corporalidad, simulación y memoria.’ Escritura e Imagen, no. 17 (2021): 153-172. https://doi.org/10.5209/esim.78973

  • With Brown, K.; Brown, J. A.; et al. 'Community crafts and culture empowering indigenous communities.' In Heritage 2018. Editorial Universidad de Granada, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/14478.

     

Selected Conference Papers
  • ‘“Un cocktail de espíritus opuestos”: redes transnacionales, comunidades efímeras y los vasos comunicantes del Surrealismo en Centroamérica’, XV Coloquio-taller de la Red Europea de Investigaciones sobre Centroamérica (RedISCA), held at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano – November 12-15, 2025.
  • ‘Max Jiménez entre fantoches, gleba y domadores de pulgas: Identidad, migración y exilio’, III Congreso de Historia del arte, cultura y sociedad: Viajes, encuentros y mestizajes en Latinoamérica, África y Europa, held at Universidad de La Laguna, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife in October 2022.
  • ‘Community: crafts and culture’, Cumbre Andina de Museos de las Américas, coordinated by ICOM and ICOM Ecuador, held in October 2018 at Museo Nacional del Ecuador, Quito.
  • With Brown, K.; Brown, J. A. et al., ‘Community crafts and culture: empowering indigenous communities’, at Heritage 2018: 6th International Conference on Heritage and Sustainable Development, held in June 2018 at Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Edificación, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.