Sonoma State University

Natalia Villanueva-Nieves

Assistant Professor

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Natalia Villanueva-Nieves

Contact

[email protected]

Office

Stevenson Hall 2301

Office Hours

Tue: 2:00 pm-4:00 pm

Advising Area

  • Chicanx and Latinx Studies Program - Advisor (Last names H–M)

Biography

Dra. Natalia Villanueva-Nieves earned her doctoral degree in Chicana and Chicano Studies from
the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her master’s degree in Comparative Literary
Studies from Utrecht University. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on the following
areas: Latinx literatures and expressive cultures, Latinx affect, Latinx emotional geographies,
relational and hemispheric race studies, and transnational feminisms of the Americas.

Her first academic monograph, The True Colors of Feeling Brown: Racialized Affect and the
Poetics of Space in Latina Narratives (Palgrave 2026), examines the transnational dynamics that
shape Latina affect in fictional narratives from the 1990s through the twenty-first century. In this
work, Dra. Villanueva-Nieves argues that Latina narratives function as affective maps, using
storytelling to chart emotional landscapes experienced differently by Mestizas, white Latinas,
and Black Latinas across various historical periods and transnational territories. This work
demonstrates that Latina affect, as a tool for spacemaking, not only counters the dominant forces
of US white supremacy but also interacts with Latin American racial ideologies, such as
mestizaje and blanqueamiento.

Degrees

Ph.D. in Chicana & Chicano Studies, Univeristy of California Santa Barbara

Selected Publications & Presentations

Book:

  • Villanueva-Nieves, Natalia. The True Colors of Feeling Brown: Racialized Affect and the
    Poetics of Space in Latina Narratives. Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies Series.
    Palgrave, 2026. https://link.springer.com/book/9783032194336

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Chapters

  • Villanueva-Nieves, Natalia. “Abjection Aesthetics of Joy and Kinship in Javier Zamora’s
    Solito.” Genealogies of Joy: The Pleasure of Latinx Literature. Edited by Erin Murrah-Mandril
    and Leigh Johnson. University of Arizona Press, 2027. Forthcoming.
     
  • Villanueva Nieves, Natalia. "Mapping Cuban Affective Landscapes: Storytelling and White
    Cuban Women’s Affect in Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García.” Chiricú Journal: Latina/o
    Literatures, Arts, and Cultures. Vol. 9, Number 2, Spring 2025.
     
  • Villanueva Nieves, Natalia. “Discursive Crimes: Chicana Affect and Hegemonic Power in
    Eulogy for a Brown Angel by Lucha Corpi.” Ex-Centric Narratives: Journal of Anglophone
    Literature, Culture and Media Vol. 3, 2019. (Open-Access).
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.26262/exna.v0i3.7549
     
  • Villanueva Nieves, Natalia. “A Day of Self Recognition: Gender Stereotypes under a Modern
    Ontology in The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez.” Geographies of Identity: Mapping,
    Crossing, and Transgressing Urban and Human Boundaries. Edited by Esther Álvarez López.
    Universidad de Alcalá de Henares/Instituto Franklin, 2016, pp. 27-35
     
  • Villanueva Nieves, Natalia. “Lebrón, Lolita”. American National Biography Online. Published
    April 2016.
     
  • Villanueva Nieves, Natalia. “Un Rebozo Tecnicolor: La Memoria Transcultural en Caramelo de
    Sandra Cisneros”. Nepantla: liminalidad y transición. Escritura chicana de mujeres. Edited by
    Claire Joysmith. UNAM/CISAN, 2015, pp. 123-136.

Public Scholarship Articles and Reviews