Kearns

Sofia Kearns

Professor of Spanish

Curriculum Vitae
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Dr. Kearns grew up in Bucaramanga, Colombia and she enjoys the many opportunities at Furman to share with her students her experiences growing up abroad. She has directed and co-directed the MLL programs in Spain and Chile, and our former program in Costa Rica. She lives with Drew Kearns, their son Tomás and two cats. She loves reading, listening to Caribbean music, hiking in the nearby mountains, and birdwatching.

Honors

  • The Furman Standard Grant. 2019-2022. Colombians and their involvement in the Greenville Textile Industry since the 1960s, a documentary.
  • Undergraduate Research Fellowship. To investigate Colombians and their involvement in the Greenville Textile Industry. Summer 2018 and Summer 2019.
  • Furman Humanities Grant. First Nations CLP Series. Spring 2018.
  • Research and Professional Growth. Conferencia Internacional de Literatura Hiapánica, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and research in Comodoro-Rivadavia, Argentina, March 5-11, 2017
  • Faculty Development grant. “Building Partnerships in the Community: An Interdisciplinary Research Project in Greenville, SC.” Let’s Talk. Relationships, Research, and Results. Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures Symposium. U. of Notre Dame, IN. March 31, 2017
    • Diversity and Inclusion Mini-Grant. WGSS Retreat on March 23, 2017.
    • Furman Advantage Teaching fellowship. Fall 2016, Fall 2018
    • SC Department of Higher Education Service-Learning Award, 2010

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • M.A., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • B.A., Universidad Industrial de Santander, Colombia

Research

Dr. Sofía Kearns’ research focuses on the intersections of race, social class, gender, sexuality and nation. Her dissertation on the poetry of contemporary Latin American women writers Gioconda Belli, Maria Mercedes Carranza and Ana Maria Rodas applied feminist theory to compare the negotiation that each writer did with the social construction “Woman,” and the implications of such negotiation in their portrayal of nation. In the late 1990s she had the privilege to meet and interview Costa Rican author Anacristina Rossi and to visit and explore the natural wonders of the Gandoca-Manzanillo wildlife refuge, site of her famous novel La loca de Gandoca. Subsequently, Dr. Kearns has published six articles on Rossi’s narratives, plus an online edition of La Loca de Gandoca, which is available to Furman students only. Dr. Kearns’s current research focuses on the poetry of indigenous women in Latin America. In 2018 she invited Mapuche-Argentinian poet Liliana Ancalao to campus as part of the First Nations CLP lecture series. She is also conducting research on Colombian workers in Greenville and their involvement in the local textile industry since the 1960s. Dr. Kearns has a special interest in service-learning and was awarded the 2010 SC Department of Higher Education Service-Learning Award.

Publications

  • Oral Histories of Colombian Textile Workers in Greenville, SC. 2019. https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/textile-workers/
  • "La literatura indígena y su rol en el proyecto de recuperación lingüística en el continente americano." MIFLC Review, vol 19 Fall 2019. pp. 71-85
  • “Convergencias feministas y de justicia social en dos generaciones de poetas guatemaltecas: Ana María Rodas y Rosa Chávez.” Agencia, historia y empoderamiento femenino. Eds. Diane Marting, Eva París y Yamile Silva. Ministerio de la mujer, Crítica Dominicana Literaria sobre Escritoras Hispanoamericanas, 2018. pp. 237-54.
  • "La compaginación de identidades étnicas y femeninas en la poesía indígena de Liliana Ancalao y Rosa Chávez” Ciberletras 38. July 2017. http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v38/kearnss.htm
  • "Widening the Spectrum of Desire and Nation: Anacristina Rossi's Fiction." QED. A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 3:2 Summer 2016. Pp. 93-106
  • "El logro de la 'palabra única' en El canto de las moscas." María Mercedes Carranza. 7 ensayos sobre su obra. Luz Eugenia Sierra, Editora. Bogotá: LETRA A LETRA e Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 2014. pp. 97-129
  • "Latin American and French Post-Modern Aesthetics in María la noche. LEF-E (L'Erudit Franco-Espagnol) An Electronic Journal of French and Hispanic Literatures." Vol. 2, Fall 2012. pp. 73-92. Web
  • Co-authored with Laura Barbas Rhoden: "Questioning Modernity, Affirming Resilience: Eco-pedagogies for Homero Aridjis' En quién piensas and Anacristina Rossi's La loca" Review 85. Eco-Literature and Arts in Latin America. Vol. 45:2 (November 2012). 167-74
  • "Introduction" and "Afterword." La loca de Gandoca/The Madwoman of Gandoca. Tr. T. Martin. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006; Postcoloniality in Rossi's Limón Blues. South Carolina Modern Language Review 5:1. Spring 2006. Web
  • Nueva conciencia ecológica en algunos textos femeninos contemporáneos. Latin American Literary Review 34:67 (January-June 2006). 111-127
  • Online student edition of La loca de Gandoca, ecofeminist short novel by Costa Rican author Anacristina Rossi, August 2005 (available to Furman campus readers only at http://millie.furman.edu/kearns/LLG/)
  • Book chapter: "Ana Maria Rodas y la negociación con la tradición patriarcal." Desde la zona abierta. Artículos críticos sobre la obra de Ana María Rodas. Ed. Aida Toledo. Guatemala: Editorial Palo de Hormigo, 2004. 25-51
  • "Una ruta hacia la conciencia feminista: la poesía de Gioconda Belli." CiberLetras 9 (July 2003). Web. http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v09/kearns.html
  • "Political and Toxic Discourse: The Latest Poems by María Mercedes Carranza." CiberLetras 5 (August 2001). Web. http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v05/kearns.html
  • "Anacristina Rossi: testimonio y lucha por la conservación ambiental de Gandoca-Manzanillo." Confluencia 16:2 (Fall 2000)
  • "Environmental Issues in Costa Rica. An Interview with Anacristina Rossi." Organization and Environment. 13:2 (June 2000): 262-5
  • "Otra cara de Costa Rica a través de un testimonio ecofeminista." Hispanic Journal 19:2 (Fall 1998): 313-39

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