Core Faculty

Education

PhD, 2000, University of Kansas, Hispanic Literature
M.A. 1994, University of New Mexico, Hispanic Literature
B.A. 1992, Tulane University, Latin American Studies and Spanish

Research Interests

Caribbean Literature * Latin(o) American Theater and Performance Studies * Migration and Citizenship * Colonialism and Race

Biographical Information

Camilla Stevens is Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and a specialist in Latin(o) American theater and performance studies and Caribbean literature. Her scholarship examines how theater and performance shape the cultural politics of collective identity in the Caribbean and its diasporas. Her book-length studies move from national to transnational to regional frameworks. Family and Identity in Contemporary Cuban and Puerto Rican Drama examines how domestic drama allegorizes competing national imaginaries, while Aquí and Allá: Transnational Dominican Theater and Performance turns to questions of diasporic belonging. Her recent editorial projects—Mondongo Scam/Ay Fefa, Where Is the Wind?, and The Coloniality of Catastrophe in Caribbean Theater and Performance (with Jon Rossini)—extend this work to hemispheric and archipelagic perspectives. Alongside her research, she serves on the editorial board of Latin American Theatre Review and previously directed the Center for Latin American Studies and served as associate director of the Rutgers Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies.

Courses Regularly Taught in Latino and Caribbean Studies

Publications 

Books

• 2025. The Coloniality of Catastrophe in Caribbean Theater and Performance, eds. Camilla Stevens and Jon Rossini, (Palgrave).
• 2023. Mondongo Scam / Ay Fefa, Where is the Wind? Edited anthology, (NoPassport Press).
• 2019. Aquí and Allá: Transnational Dominican Theater and Performance (University Press of Pittsburgh).
• 2016. Escrito por mujeres. (1951-2010). Vol II. Co-edited anthology of Latin American Women Playwrights. Latin American Theater Today Books (with May Summer Farnsworth and Brenda Werth).
• 2013. Escrito por mujeres. (1911-1942). Vol I. Co-edited critical anthology of Latin American Women Playwrights. Latin American Theater Today Books (with May Summer Farnsworth and Olga Martha Peña Doria).
• 2004. Family and Identity in Contemporary Cuban and Puerto Rican Drama (University Press of Florida).

Articles and Book Chapters

• 2024. “Temporality in Cuba’s Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Theatre,” in The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature, eds. Jacqueline Loss and Vicky Unruh (Cambridge UP). 549-563.
• 2024. “Acts of Commemoration: Liberating Salomé Ureña from the Dominican Pantheon” in: Bodies on the Front Lines: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Katherine Zien and Brenda Werth (U of Michigan P). 190-207.
• 2022. “Marco Antonio Rodríguez” in 50 Key Latin American and Latinx Artists, Routledge Key Guides, eds. Paola Hernández and Analola Santana. 147-50.
• 2016. “Hispanic Caribbean Theatre on the Move: Crossing Borders, Redefining
  Boundaries.” Latin American Theatre Review 50.1: 11-27.
• 2014. “Caribbean Drama: A Stage for Cross-Cultural Poetics,” in Re-imagining the
  Caribbean: Teaching Creole, French, and Spanish Caribbean Literature. Eds. Valérie
  Orlando and Sandra Cypess. Lexington Books.
• 2013. “‘Get up, Stand up, Stand up for your Rights’”: Transnational Belonging and
  Rights of Citizenship in Dominican Theater,” in Imagining Human Rights in Twenty-
  First Century Theater: Global Perspectives. Eds. Florian Becker, Paola Hernandez, and
  Brenda Werth. Palgrave.
• 2009. “Theater Transformations: Reading Race in Abelardo Estorino's Parece blanca,” in
  Trans/acting: Latin American and Latino Performing Arts. Eds. Jacqueline Bixler and
  Laurietz Seda. Bucknell University Press.
• 2007. “Ponernos el espejo por delante: Staging Race in Alejandro Tapia y Rivera’s La
  cuarterona.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. 31(2): 231-52.
• 2006. “The Haunted Puerto Rican Stage: Lucy Boscana in Vejigantes and La carreta.”
  Latin American Theatre Review 38 (1): 5-22. (reprinted in: Revista del Archivo Nacional
  de Teatro y Cine del Ateneo Puertorriqueño, 2006).