Stuart Day

Stuart A. Day, Professor of Spanish (BS in Spanish and Education, Northern Arizona University's Center for Excellence in Education; MA in Hispanic Literature, University of Arizona; PhD in Latin American Literature, Cornell University). Day's main area of teaching and research is contemporary Latin American literature, with a focus on theater and performance in Mexico. Before joining the faculty at KU he taught at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2000-2005), where he was a Faculty Fellow and recipient of two teaching/mentoring awards. At KU he was awarded the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence and was a Senior Administrative Fellow.

His first book, Staging Politics in Mexico: The Road to Neoliberalism, was published by Bucknell University Press. Day has also published several anthologies and co-edited, with Jacqueline E. Bixler, El Teatro de Rascón Banda: voces en el umbral (Escenelogía). He has published book chapters with several presses (Arizona, Iowa, Escenología, Vanderbilt, etc.) as well as articles, play introductions, and interviews in a variety of journals. Day's theoretical approach is informed mainly by Cultural Studies and Performance Studies; and his courses often have to do with social justice.

Current research includes a special edition of the Mexican theater magazine Paso de Gato, chapters/articles on Federico Gamboa ("Performing the Porfiriato: Federico Gamboa and the Performance of Power"); Sabina Berman ("Similia similibus curantur: La exhumación de lo real en Backyard de Sabina Berman"); Vicente Leñero ("Transposing Professions: Vicente Leñero and the Politics of the Press"); a piece based on interviews with Sabina Berman and Jesusa Rodríguez ("It's My National Stage Too: Sabina Berman and Jesusa Rodríguez as Public Intellectuals"), and the contemporary theater chapter in the Cambridge's A History of Mexican Literature (2016). This topic—public intellectuals in Mexico—is the subject of a volume Day published with Debra A. Castillo (Palgrave 2014). Recent books include Outside Theater: Alliances That Shape Mexico (University of Arizona Press, 2017) and Modern Mexican Culture (University of Arizona Press, 2017). Current projects include the book Performances that Changed the Americas, under contract with Routledge, and Show Me Your Papers.

Though his research is often focused on Mexico, Day has also worked (or is working) with numerous dissertators on a variety of projects that include theater/performance but also Mexican narrative, print culture in the Southern Cone, Cyberpunk, Latina/o Literature, Migration, etc. Day is a member of the KU Latina/o Studies Initiative and core faculty in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He has served as Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee, Associate Chair, Chair of Spanish and Portuguese, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, and Associate Vice Chancellor (current); Editor of the Latin American Theatre Review; and served on the Advisory Board of the PMLA. He is also involved with LATR Books (Managing Editor), for which he edited an anthology of Mexican plays (Las fronteras míticas del teatro mexicano, 2009, 2013, 2016).