Title: Professor of Spanish
Department: World Languages & Cultures
Degrees: B.A., Universidad Central de Venezuela; M.A.,Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Research Interests: Contemporary Latin American production; Venezuelan literature; Gender and Transgender
Studies; Hispanic cinema; and the culture of illicit drugs in the Americas.
Contact Info
Email: whernand@allegheny.edu
Phone: (814) 332-2319
Office Location: Ruter 200, Box 30
On Leave 2021-2022
I am an Associate Professor of Spanish at Allegheny College, where I work on recent Latin
American cultural production with a particular emphasis on the GLBTQ literature and cinema
from Venezuela. My articles and book reviews have appeared, among other journals, at Revista
de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista Iberoamericana, Cincinnati Romance Review, Argos
(Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela). Other academic publications include
chapters in El tránsito vacilante (2013), edited by Patricia Valladares and Leonora Simonovis;
Tortilleras: Hispanic and U.S. Lesbian Expression (2003), edited by Lourdes Torres and
Inmaculada Pertusa; and Sexualidad y nación (2000), edited by Daniel Balderton. I co-authored
an introduction to the first American translation of Eugenio Montejo’s poetry (University of
Oklahoma Press, 2010). Currently, I am working on a book-project tentatively title The
Transgender Subject in Revolutionary Venezuela (1999-Present), where I analyze a series of
novels and plays published after Hugo Chávez took power and where trans characters appear and
most of the time are protagonists. Before coming to Allegheny, I taught at Trinity College
(1998-2000) and the University of Connecticut (1994-1998). I received my PhD in Spanish in
2002 from the University of Connecticut. I went to college at the Central University of
Venezuela, in Caracas, where I majored in both Modern Languages and Education. I was born
in Venezuela in 1963 and moved to the United States in 1993. I live in Meadville, Pennsylvania,
since 2000.