Belkys Torres

Belkys' Affiliations: Institute for International Studies in Education, Center for Latin American Studies

Dr. Belkys Torres is the Associate Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence in Education where she focuses on increasing educational equity by identifying and working toward the removal of academic and structural barriers to student persistence and completion, with an emphasis on those issues that disproportionately impact select student groups.

Dr. Torres also holds the position of Teaching Assistant Professor in Latinx and Gender Studies for the Literature Program in the Department of English. She earned her doctorate at the University of Notre Dame. Her dissertation, “Serial Storytelling, Female Audiences and Telenovelas: Television’s influence on Contemporary Latina/o Fiction,” offers a multidisciplinary approach to examine melodrama’s subversive potential within U.S. Latina/o literature by adapting recent scholarship on serialized melodrama and feminist theory to discussions of the Latin American telenovela and U.S. Latinx fiction. Her research interests include Latinx literary and cultural studies, ethnic media studies, cultural hybridity, transnationalism, feminist theory, intercultural competency training, global & community engaged learning, and program/curricular assessment.