Laura Barrio-Vilar, Ph.D.

Dr. Barrio's headshotAssociate Professor
Office: Stabler Hall 501-W
Phone: 501-916-3161
Email: Lxbarrio@ualr.edu

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Kentucky (2011) M.A., University of Kentucky (2001) B.A., Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (1998)

Areas of Focus

African American Literature, Caribbean Literature, U.S. Ethnic Literatures, Postcolonial Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Literature and Social Justice.

Publications

  • “The Healing Powers of Literature: Edwidge Danticat’s Response to Genocide in The Farming of Bones.”  Memory Studies, special issue on “Resisting Memory: Towards a Decolonial Approach.” Forthcoming.
  • Book review of Imitation Nation: Red, White, and Blackface in Early and Antebellum U.S. Literature, by Jason Richards. Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, vol. 36, no. 1, 2019, pp. 153-55.
  • “Transformando a Universidade e a Sociedade coa Aprendizaxe a través do Voluntariado,” V Xornada Universitaria Galega en Xénero: Transformando dende a Universidade, Vigo, 7 July 2017, edited by Anabel González Penín, Eva Aguayo Lorenzo, Ana Jesús López Díaz, Universidade de Vigo, Servizo de Publicacións, pp. 83-92.
  • “’Everything remains the same and yet nothing is the same’: Neocolonialism in the Caribbean Diaspora through the Language of Family and Servitude.” Journal of International Women’s Studies, Special Issue: Toward Caribbeanness, vol. 17, no. 3, 2016, pp. 102-116.
  • “’All o’ we is one’: Citizenship, Migration, and Black Nationalism in the Postcolonial Era.” Callaloo, vol. 37, no. 1, 2014, pp. 89-111.
  • “(In)visibility, Trauma, and Memory in the Black Hispanic Experience: Black Female Bodies in Loida Maritza Pérez’s Geographies of Home.” Op. Cit.: Revista del Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, vol. 20, 2011-2012, pp. 289-316.
  • “Romancing the Caribbean: Tourism, Neocolonialism, and Intra-Racial Dislocations in the African Diaspora.” Caribbean InTransit, vol. 2, no. 3, 2012, pp. 23-37.
  • “Racial Uplift Ideology and Black Womanhood in Frances Harper’s Serialized Novels.” Popular Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers and the Literary Marketplace, edited by Earl Yarington and Mary De Jong, Cambridge Scholars P, 2007, pp. 405-31.
  • “Getting a Taste of the Other: The Eighteenth-Century British Novel as the Epitome of Masquerade.” Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación / Culture, Language and Representation, vol. 1, 2004, pp. 55-67.
  • “Narrating the African Self in the Late Eighteenth Century: Issues of Voice, Authority, and Identity in Gronniosaw’s 1770 Narrative.” Journal of Kentucky Studies, vol. 20, 2003, pp. 117-22.
  • “Narrating the Slave Self in the Americas: Issues of Authority, Voice, and Identity in Cuban Narratives of Slavery.” Journal of Caribbean Studies, vol. 17, no.1-2, 2002, pp. 33-50.

Courses Taught at UA Little Rock

  • Afrofuturism and Black Speculative Fiction
  • Migration Literature
  • Black Protest Literature
  • Black Crime and Literature
  • Literature and Social Justice (service-learning course)
  • Studies in Major American Writers: Toni Morrison
  • Postcolonial Literature
  • Narratives of Slavery (service-learning course)
  • African American Literature II
  • African American Literature I
  • Women in Literature (service-learning course)
  • African American Women’s Activism and Literature (service-learning course)
  • Approaches to Literature
  • World Literature
  • Arab Women Writers (Honors tutorial)
  • Native American Literature (Honors tutorial)
  • Feminism in Literature (Independent study)

Selected Professional Activities on Campus

Honors and Awards

  • Signature Experience Grant for the undergraduate research project “The Masculine Spectrum: Exploring Black Masculinities in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon” with Kaitlin Jackson ($800), UA Little Rock (10/2023)
  • Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching, College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education, UA Little Rock (04/2023)
  • Summer Research and Creative Activities Fellowship, College of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences, and Education ($4,000 stipend), UA Little Rock (04/2023)
  • Pilot Jumpstart Teaching and Learning Expo Winner in the “Equity, Inclusion, and Pedagogy of Care” Category ($1,000 stipend) (05/2022)
  • Jumpstart Teaching Award for the proposal, “Course Redesign of Asynchronous Core Class with an Emphasis on Accessibility, Equity, and Inclusion.” Part of UA Little Rock’s Pilot Jumpstart Program for Teaching and Learning, created by the Provost Office. ($2,400 stipend) (02/2022)
  • ATLE Teaching Stamina Award (12/2021)
  • ATLE Lifetime Participation Award (05/2021)
  • ATLE Master Teacher Award (05/2021)
  • ATLE Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award (05/2020)
  • ATLE Teaching Fellow Award (05/2020)
  • ATLE Professional Development Certificate (05/2020)
  • Student Advocate Award, UA Little Rock (05/2020)
  • Scientific Teaching Fellow Certificate 2019-2020 in recognition of demonstrated commitment to undergraduate education, Summer Institutes on Scientific Teaching (Summer 2019)
  • “Awesome Ally to LGBTQ Students” recognition by The Alliance (05/2018)
  • Faculty Excellence Award in Public Service, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences, UA Little Rock (2017)
  • Graduation and Retention Advocate Award (2014 and 2015)
  • ATLE New Faculty Teaching Commendation (2013)
  • ATLE Professional Development Certificate (2013)
  • ATLE Summer Teaching Institute (2012)
  • CAHSS Summer Research Grant (2011-2012)