Dr. Kim Beauchesne specializes in Latin American colonial literature and postcolonial theory, with a particular emphasis on comparative colonialism, and was the co-organizer of the UBC Postcolonial Research Cluster. Other research and teaching interests include the relationship between human rights and literature, the notion of utopia, travel literature, and the legacy of colonialism in contemporary Latin American literature and culture.

She is the author of a book titled Visión periférica: marginalidad y colonialidad en las crónicas de América Latina (siglos XVI-XVII y XX-XXI). In addition to many scholarly articles and book chapters, she has also published two co-edited volumes with Dr. Alessandra Santos—The Utopian Impulse in Latin America (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)—as well as Asia en América Latina (2018), a special issue of the Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana co-edited with Dr. Koichi Hagimoto and Dr. Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger.

In 2019 she received a SSHRC Insight Grant for a project titled “Bridging Transatlantic and Transpacific Studies: The Keichō Embassy and its Textual Representations in the Hispanic World (17th and 21st Centuries).” This latest research, building on a previous SSHRC Standard Research Grant (2010-2014), will offer a decentered perspective on the cultural contacts between Asia, the Americas, and Europe that occurred in the early modern era and are still relevant in contemporary literatures and cultures. For more information, please click here. She was also recently awarded a SSHRC Explore Grant for her next research project on the issue of cultural decolonization in the Americas (Canada and Argentina, among other regions).

Interests

• Colonial literature and culture
• Latin American literature and culture
• Travel writing
• Utopian studies
• Human rights and literature
• History of globalization
• Transpacific studies

Current projects

“Bridging Transatlantic and Transpacific Studies: The Keichō Embassy and its Textual Representations in the Hispanic World (17th and 21st Centuries)” (SSHRC Insight Grant, 2019-2024)

“Decolonizing Patagonia: Mapuche Cultural Strategies to Challenge Coloniality in the Twenty-First Century” (SSHRC Explore Grant, 2019-2020)

I. Books
Visión periférica: marginalidad y colonialidad en las crónicas de América Latina (siglos XVI-XVII y XX-XXI). Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2013. 267 pp.

II. Edited Books

Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas. Eds. Kim Beauchesne and Alessandra Santos. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 324 pp.

The Utopian Impulse in Latin America. Eds. Kim Beauchesne and Alessandra Santos. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 307 pp.

Le Grand dictionnaire des cooccurrences. Eds. Kim and Maude Beauchesne. Completely revised, updated, and augmented edition of Dictionnaire des cooccurrences by Jacques Beauchesne. Montreal: Éditions Guérin, 2009. 800 pp. Selected for book launch at the Salon du livre de Montréal in 2009.

III. a) Chapters

“Introduction: Utopian Interventions and Their Relevance in the Contemporary Americas.” Performing Utopias in the Contemporary Americas. Eds. Kim Beauchesne and Alessandra Santos. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. 1-21.

“La glorificación de la periferia del Nuevo Mundo: representaciones de Cabeza de Vaca en La Argentina (1602) de Martín del Barco Centenera y otros textos fundacionales del Río de la Plata.” Los géneros poéticos del Siglo de Oro: centros y periferias. Eds. Rodrigo Cacho Casal and Anne Holloway. Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2013. 217-32.

“Más allá del canon: los Comentarios de Pero Hernández y la problemática de la otredad.” Estudios coloniales latinoamericanos en el siglo XXI: nuevos itinerarios. Ed. Stephanie Kirk. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, 2011. 149-66.

“Introduction: The Theory and Practice of the Utopian Impulse in Latin America.” The Utopian Impulse in Latin America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 1-28.

III. b) Journals

“Sincronía planetaria: las conexiones discursivas entre las crónicas españolas sobre América y la relación de Sebastián Vizcaíno (1614) sobre Japón.” Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 87 (July 2018): 113-36.

“Introducción: Interrogantes asiáticos y miradas latinoamericanas.” Special issue: Asia en América Latina. Eds. Kim Beauchesne, Koichi Hagimoto, and Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana (87): 9-18.

“La parrilla viajera: canibalismo y colonialidad en la cultura contemporánea de las Américas (Chagoya, Dias, Riedweg y Cros). Chasqui 45.2 (November 2016): 87-105.

“Trans-Pacific Connections: Cultural Contacts through the Lens of Miguel López de Legazpi’s Representation of the Philippines and its Relationship with the Early Accounts of the New World.” Asian Journal for Latin American Studies 28.4 (2015): 1-28.

“Resonancias coloniales: El interior, de Martín Caparrós, y la exploración contemporánea de la Argentina marginada.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 35.3 (Spring 2011): 467-90.

“‘Soy ahora un bandido’: la apropiación de la figura del rebelde en El Tirano Aguirre, de Adolfo Briceño Picón.” Revista Iberoamericana 77.236-37 (2011): 665-83.

“Comentarios irreales: el Diario del Inca Garcilaso de Francisco Carrillo Espejo (1996) y la reinvención contemporánea de un ícono nacional.” Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 35.70 (2009): 101-23.

Reprinted in Garcilasismo crítico y creativo: nueva antología. Eds. José Antonio Mazzotti and Eduardo González-Viaña. Eugene; Boston; New York: Axiara Editions; ANLE, 2016.

“‘Yguatou’: La política del comer en Jean de Léry.” Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 30.60 (2004): 99-119.

IV. Special Issues

Asia en América Latina. Eds. Kim Beauchesne, Koichi Hagimoto, and Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger. Special issue of the Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana 87 (2018). 392 pp.

• SSHRC Insight Grant
• SSHRC Explore Grant
• SSHRC Exchange Grant
• HSS Research Grant
• Proyecto I+D Excelencia 2015 from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain)
• Faculty of Arts International Travel Grants
• SSHRC Connection Grant
• HSS Workshop Grant
• SSHRC Standard Research Grant
• Green College and SSHRC grants for the UBC Postcolonial Research Cluster