Sharina Maillo Pozo

Photo credit: Joe Lingenman
Blurred image of the arch used as background for stylistic purposes.
Assistant Professor of Spanish/Latinx Studies

I specialize in Latinx and Caribbean literature and culture, with special attention to the cultural production of the Dominican Republic and its diaspora in the United States. Some of my research papers and reviews have appeared in edited volumes, and mid-high tier academic journals, Ciberletras, Centro Journal, The Black Scholar, Chasqui. Revista de literatura latinoamericana, Small Axe, and Cuadernos de literatura. I was the 2016-2017 Dominican Studies Fellow. 

My single-authored book, Bridging Sonic Borders. Popular Music in Contemporary Dominican/Dominican-York Literature is currently under contract with UT Press and forthcoming in Spring 2025. 

The co-edited Volume, Embodiment and Representations of Beauty co-edited with Dr. Esther Hernández-Medina was published on September 6, 2024 in Advances for Gender Research. Emerald Publishing Limited: 2024. https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=31277814.


Abstract

Contributions to this volume showcase the current state of gender research as it relates to the embodiment and representation of beauty. In particular, the authors highlight a more open-ended concept of beauty that goes beyond esthetics. The authors call our attention to the fact that beauty definitions and standards in any given society closely reflect the distribution of power in it. For this purpose, the authors in this volume share findings of research and conducted in multiple sites in the United States (i.e., Southern California, the Midwest, the Northwest, New York City, Salt Lake City, Houston, Boston, and Washington, DC), El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic. Contributors also use a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to expand notions of beauty and its embodiment across diverse areas and experiences. The authors ask and invite us to ask ourselves how race, class, disability, gender identity or sexual orientation, and other dimensions of inequality inform our definitions of what beauty is and is not. They exhort us to interrogate who defines who and what is beautiful and why. Finally, rather than being problem-oriented, the premise of each study is to effect collective change in the ways we construe, see, represent, and embody beauty.

Citation

Hernández-Medina, E. and Maíllo-Pozo, S. (2024), "The Power of Beauty: Intersectional Feminist Approaches to its Embodiment and Representation", Hernández-Medina, E. and Maíllo-Pozo, S. (Ed.) Embodiment and Representations of Beauty (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 35), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620240000035001

I am working on two additional book projects: 

Through the Eyes of Latinx Youth: Narratives of Coming of Age Latinx in New York City examines the increasing cultural production of narratives by Latinx coming of age in New York City.  (Beginning stages)

Tracing the Legacy of Camila Henríquez Ureña through Translation and Beyond with Dr. Annee Roschelle (In hiatus)

For recent media appearances regarding my research on Camila Henríquez Ureña, please visit the following sites:

MEDIA CONTRIBUTIONS

2023 “Y tú, ¿qué dices?” Acento TV (Dominican Republic): “Zaida Capote y Sharina Maillo valoran y 

resaltan calidad intelectual de Camila Henríquez Ureña”

La Nota. Podcast Informativo de SEMlac (Cuba): “Camila Henríquez Ureña, su dimensión feminista”

 

Research Areas:
Latin American, Iberian & Latinx Studies
Transatlantic & Diaspora Studies
Media, Visual Culture, & Performance Studies
Research Interests:

My research interests are interdisciplinary with a common focus on the relationship between literature and popular music, gender, and performance studies in three closely related areas: Latinx, Latin American & Caribbean, and Dominican Studies. My first line of research examines the presence of popular music in contemporary Latinx and Caribbean literature and performance with a special focus on Dominican/Dominican-York cultural production. My second line of research explores the marginalization of Latinas in U.S. intellectual history.

 

Grants:

2024  Franklin College for the Arts & Humanities First Book Subvention Grant 

2024  Nina Salant Hellerstein Professional Development Fund

2023-2024 Willson Center Distinguished Artist Grant (Co-Proposed with Dr. Lesley Feracho)

2023-2024 Willson Center Distinguished Artist Grant (Co-Proposed with Dr. Betina Kaplan)

2022-2023 Willson Center Distinguished Artist Grant (Co-Proposed with Dr. Betina Kaplan)

2022 Willson Center Distinguished Artist Grant

2022 Department of Romance Languages Grant

2022-2023 Teaching Academy Fellowship

2020-2021 Willson Center Fellowship   

2019-2021 Lilly Teaching Fellowship  

2019 Willson Center Department-Invited Artist

2016-2018 Dominican Studies Fellowship              

Courses Regularly Taught:
SPAN 2550
SPAN 4030
Selected Publications:

Peer-Reviewed Articles

2023 “Storytelling from the Borderlands of La Romana and New York: A Journey through Josefina Báez’s Dominicanish.” Review Literature and Arts of the Americas, (Special issue on Contemporary Dominican Writing/Art), 56:1, 17-23.

2022 “Rita Indiana’s Estrategia to Refocus (neo)Trujillista and Balaguerista Narratives of Dominicanidad. Unearthing Sonic Stories of 1990’s Urban Youth/La Estrategia de Rita Indiana para reenfocar las narrativas (neo) trujillista y balaguerista de la dominicanidad: desenterrando las historias sónicas de la juventud urbana de los años 1990.” Revista Estudios Sociales. Vol. 44. no.165, pp. 89-106; 107-124. https://estudiossociales.bono.edu.do/index.php/es/issue/view/158

2019 “Diálogos músico-literarios y nuevos discursos contra-hegemónicos en dos novelas de Rita Indiana Hernández.” Cuadernos de literatura, vol. 23, no. 45, pp. 47-72.

2019 “Resisting Colonial Ghosts: Scripting Blackness in the Dominican Republic’s Past and Present.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 132-141. 

2018 “(Re)Constructing Dominican Latinidad: Intersections Between Gender, Race, and Hip-Hop.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, vol. 56, no. 2. July-September, pp. 85-99. 

2018 “Nuevas subjetividades: Contracultura y bachata en tres cuentos de Aurora Arias.” Chasqui. Revista de literatura latinoamericana, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 84-99. 

2017 “Aproximación al método creativo de Josefina Báez.” Conjunto. Revista de Teatro Latinoamericano. Casa de las Américas, no. 184, julio-septiembre, pp. 65-71. 

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

2021 “Vigencia de la ‘materia reunida" de Camila Henríquez Ureña. Algunas reflexiones desde el espacio académico estadounidense.” Escribir otra isla. La República Dominicana en su literatura. Eds. Fernanda Bustamante, Eva Guerrero y Néstor Rodríguez. Leiden: Almenara Press.  

2019 “Vindicating Dominican latinidad through Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s first New York Stay.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press. Print and online.  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.401

2018 “Lourdes Gil y su aproximación poética al exilio y otros temas.” Entre islas. La imaginación poética de Magali Alabau, Alina Galiano, Lourdes Gil, Maya Islas e Iraida Iturralde. Eds. Elena Martínez and Francisco Soto. Valencia: Aduana Vieja, 289-303. 

2017 “El merengue y la cultura dominican-york en Papi de Rita Indiana Hernández.”  Ed. Fernanda Bustamante. Ediciones Cielonaranja, 127-142. 

2016 “(Des) marginalización del cuerpo Queer: Un travesti y una loca en dos cuentos de Rey Emmanuel Andújar.” Nuestro Caribe. Poder, raza y postnacionalismos para dinamitar el archipiélago LGBTQ. Puerto Rico: Isla Negra Editores. April 2016: 237-253.  

Editorial Review Teaching Publication

2022   The Dominican American Experience in Media. In Latinx Media: An Open-Access Textbook. Eds.Rielle Navitski and Leslie Marsh. University of North Georgia Press, 2022, pp. 172-183.

Book Reviews

2025 Reinbou. Forthcoming in Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas (Spring-Summer 2025). 

2023 Embodied Economies. Diaspora and Transcultural Capital in Latinx Caribbean Fiction and Theater. Hispanófila, vol. 198, p. 173-175.

2022 Latinx Teens: U.S. Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen. Revista Iberoamericana, vol. LXXXVIII, no. 281, octubre-diciembre 2022, pp. 985-987.

2021 The Once and Future Muse: The Poetry of Rhina P. Espaillat.  Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 54:1, 151-152. 

2019 The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation and Archives of Contradiction. Revista Estudios Sociales, 42:159, 133-135. 

2019 Hecho en Saturno. Revista Letral, no. 22, Julio 2019, pp. 342-345. 

 

Of note:

I am a Dominicanyork, Caribeña, Latina in Academia who is very committed to empowering women of color in academic and artistic spaces. Review on my talk on Women of Color in academia was featured in The New Paltz Oracle

Recently, I was featured in the article “I’m Proud to Break Barriers in My Latine Family. I’m Also Exhausted.” Refinery29. August 14. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/exhaustion-first-latina-break-barriers

Currently, I am Co-Chair Haiti/Dominican Republic Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association "LASA" (2024-2026). I have served as Modern Languages Assembly Delegate (2015-2018); Secretary/Treasurer for the Latino Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association “LASA” (2018-2020).

As part of the  Latinx Heritage Month celebration, in fall 2018  I was featured The Red and Black: https://www.redandblack.com/culture/a-home-on-her-back-celebrating-hispanic-heritage-month-in/article_9a4630d8-bd23-11e8-8884-47b1cea6e128.html

Education:

Ph.D. The Graduate Center-City University of New York August 2014 Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages. 

M.Phil. The Graduate Center-City University of New York August 2010 Hispanic and Luso Brazilian Literatures and Languages

M.A. Lehman College-City University of New York May 2007 Master’s of Arts

Spanish Literature B.A. Lehman College-City University of New York May 2004 Bachelor of Arts, Majors in Spanish Literature and Psychology

Articles Featuring Sharina Maillo Pozo
Smiling girl with long brown hair, trees in background

Spanish Major Alexandra Catherine Wells Selected for National Humanities Leadership Council

Story by Dr. Sharina Maíllo-Pozo

Events featuring Lesley Feracho, Sharina Maillo Pozo, Marcela Garza, Racheal Fulford
Poster
October 28, 5:00pm - 6:30pm

Willson Center Distinguished Artists - Dahlma Llanos Figueroa

-
MLC 248

On October 28, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa will give the lecture “Forgotten Women:  Giving Voice to the Voiceless” with a brief opening intervention by Marcela Garza, ABD and Racheal Fulford, PhD.
 
There will be an opportunity for Q&A and to obtain her latest novel, A Woman of Endurance. 
 
…

Contact Information

SHARINA.MAILLOPOZO@uga.edu
Office: Gilbert Hall 360C
Office Hours: To schedule an appointment with me during spring 2023 OH, please visit the following link: https://calendly.com/sharina_maillopozo/spring2023?month=2023-02

Other Information

Curriculum Vitae: Maíllo-Pozo, S_CV_ SEPTEMBER 2024.docx.pdf (417.37 KB)
Professional Website: https://sharinamaillopozo.wordpress.com/

More of My Students

Close up of smiling female face wearing glasses

Racheal Fulford

Instructor of Spanish
Marcela Garza

Marcela Garza

PhD Candidate, Latinx Studies
Profile Photo

Rachel Denae Harris

PhD Candidate, Hispanic Studies
Alvaro Ley Garrido

Alvaro Ley Garrido

PhD Student

My Graduate Students

Close up of smiling female face wearing glasses

Racheal Fulford

Instructor of Spanish
Phd Candidate

Timeko McFadden

PhD Candidate, Hispanic Studies

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