Professor Oscar Fernández was born and raised in San José, Costa Rica. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Pennsylvania State University in 2003 and joined the faculty of PSU that same year. He specializes in inter-American literatures, literary theory and AIDS research.

Professor Fernández is especially interested in the intersection of culture, sexuality, disease and literature in the Americas. In his view not enough is said about AIDS in the Americas outside of the United States, which has led to his interest in the role that disease, and more contemporarily HIV, plays within the context of culture and politics and as revealed in the literatures of the Americas. In his study of literature, which really is any written emanation from a culture, he has uncovered how notions of disease and of sexuality informed colonial views of the New World. From the earliest exploration to the present, the New World has been represented as a place of disease, especially in terms of sexually transmitted diseases.

Professor Fernández is the co-author of “Nuria Amat. ‘The Language of Two Shores’” (Publications for the Modern Language Association 116.1 [2001]). Current research and publication projects include a chapter on New World mythology (forthcoming, Penn State UP); a book review of “Virtual Americas” (2002) by Paul Giles (Comparative Literature Studies); and articles on Mario Bellatín’s disease narratives and Francisco Clavijero’s re-writing of Mexican natural histories. He holds a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Practicum Grant (Penn State 2000) and a Faculty Scholarship, Addressing Issues of Diversity Grant, “Aids in Costa Rica: Current Policies and its Literary Manifestations” (PSU 2003).

In the classroom Professor Fernández introduces students to comparative approaches to inter-American literatures. He compares Latin American literatures using colonial and contemporary texts in various languages and by reading together chronicles, letters, novels, poems and plays. He expects a lot from his students, teaching in a seminar style, challenging them with rigorous readings and requiring each to make a presentation of their final research paper. Professor Fernández’s intent is to prepare all of his students for graduate school, whether they intend to go on or not, in order to improve their critical thinking and reading skills. He encourages students to read critical theory as part of their reading practice, and finds particular satisfaction when students begin to read and analyze the culture around them using the critical skills they learned in his seminars.

Just as he asks his students to be actively involved their community, Professor Fernández connects his research to community. Currently he is a board member for Portland’s Equity Foundation, a nonprofit organization promoting philanthropy through grants and outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer communities in Oregon.

In addition to his research and teaching, Professor Fernández practices power lifting and is a bass baritone with aspirations to return to choral singing.

Name: Professor Oscar Fernández
Title: Assistant Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature
office: 451Q NH
phone: 503-725-5224
email: osf@pdx.edu
website: http://web.pdx.edu/~osf/