HISP Faculty Focus, March 2020: Dr. Edward Chauca

By | March 4, 2020

Dr. Edward Chauca, Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies, is HISP’s Faculty Focus for March 2020.

Dr. Edward Chauca, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hispanic Studies since 2015, received his B.A. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2002) and his M.A. and Ph.D., in Spanish and Hispanic Languages & Literatures, from the University of California, Los Angeles (in 2008 and 2012, respectively).

A specialist in Andean Studies, mental health and literature in Peru, and human rights and Neo-liberalism in Latin America, Dr. Chauca has published extensively on such fascinating topics as “Psicología forense y criollismo,” “Indigenous Medicine and Nation-building,” and “Mental Illness in Peruvian Narratives of Violence” in some of the leading journals in his field.

In addition, he has contributed greatly to the department, its students and the local community, directing some of HISP’s top pupils in their undergraduate dissertations and volunteering his talents at such institutions as Midland Park Elementary School and The Cynthia Graham Hurd St. Andrews Library.

For all of these things–and a great many others–Hispanic Studies is proud to count Dr. Edward Chauca among its own.

In his own words:

Teaching doesn’t come without learning, and I am not talking only about students but about the learning process that professors experience. Since moving to Charleston in 2015 my students have taught me how to better understand the needs and struggles of the new generations, my colleagues have taught me from how to tweak a class activity to the importance of building collegiality and friendship. I have been very fortunate in directing two study abroad programs, in La Habana and Trujillo, and seeing how the nuances of culture and global politics blew my students’ minds. In difficult times, I have been moved when I saw colleagues and students raising their voices and organizing against injustice and hate. In College of Charleston, I have learned that teaching is a collective effort, and the best way to empower young people is to build a community in which everyone is eager to learn from each other.”

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