Highlights from LASA 2025: Book Award, Mexico Section Officer, and Scholarly Presentation

My sabbatical year culminated with a memorable and productive time at the 2025 Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress in San Francisco. I was deeply honored that my book, Serial Mexico: Storytelling Across Media, from Nationhood to Now (Vanderbilt University Press), received an Honorable Mention for Best Book in the Mexico Section. The book also sold out at the VUP booth during the event—thank you to all the readers and colleagues who have supported this project!

During the conference, I was also elected as an officer of the Mexico Section—one of LASA’s largest area studies groups—and I presented a paper titled “Written on Her Body: Female Protagonists Face the Inquisition” as part of the 19th-Century Studies track. This talk explored the intermedial afterlives of Vicente Riva Palacio’s Monja casada, virgen y mártir and its connections to the aesthetics of serialized television. I’m grateful for the engaging conversations, the inspiring scholarship, and the chance to celebrate alongside fellow authors, including several whose books were also honored by LASA section awards.