At the close of spring semester 2025, CLACS Regional Faculty Affiliate Professor Astrid Lorena Ochoa Campo (UW-La Crosse, Global Cultures & Languages) traveled to San Francisco, CA to present her literary research at the Latin American Studies Association annual congress, which took place May 23-26, 2025.

Professor Ochoa Campo’s presentation, entitled “Invasión: cuerpos, territorios y afectos en Plaga de Juliana Javierre,” was part of the panel Cuerpos en conflicto: Transgresiones, narco-estéticas y violencia en la literatura y el cine latinoamericanos contemporáneos. Her paper analyzed the negative affects of fear, terror, shame, humiliation, and disgust in the 2021 Colombian novel Plaga, tracing how these affects register protests from the novel’s protagonists against the corporal and territorial violence they experience.

Professor Ochoa Campo reflected on the value of participating in the conference and visiting San Francisco:

My experience at LASA 2025 in San Francisco, California was truly wonderful and enriching. It was amazing to be intellectually stimulated through engaging conversations, to reconnect and network with colleagues, and to explore the vibrant Mission District—an area so meaningful to the Latinx community. I had the privilege of chairing one panel on Latinx literature [Gender and Immigration in South American Latina Literature in the 21st Century] and present on another about Colombian literature. Overall, it was an unforgettable professional development opportunity. Thank you for supporting us.

Professor Ochoa Campo’s conference participation was supported by CLACS as part of the Upper Midwest Latin American Studies Initiative, through a Title VI National Resource Center Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.