About
Born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, María Acosta Cruz received a B.A. from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is Professor of Spanish in the Dept. of Language, Literature and Culture of Clark University.
She can be reached at
macostacruz@clarku.edu
@macostacruz on Twitter or
María Acosta Cruz on Facebook
Her book, Dream Nation: Puerto Rican Culture & the Fictions of Independence, examines how independence, which failed as a political movement, impacts Puerto Rican culture and the meanings of Puerto Ricanness. Part of the Latinidad series from Rutgers University Press it also in the American Literatures Initiative from NYU, Fordham, Temple and Virginia University Presses. The series has funding from the Mellon Foundation. Click here to order a copy.
Prof. Acosta Cruz is affiliated with the programs in Comparative Literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Race, Gender & Ethnic Studies. Her interests center around Caribbean, Latino and Latin American literature and culture. Areas of inquiry are the making and marketability of identities, Hispanic Caribbean cultures and national and gender-based stereotypes.
Her work in these areas has been published in journals such as Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista Iberoamericana, CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hispanófila, and Chasqui: Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana.