Maureen E. Shea

Maureen E. Shea received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1987 in Latin American Literature with a specialization in Latin American Women Writers. She joined Tulane University in that same year. Her first book was Women as Outsiders: Undercurrents of Oppression in Latin American Women’s Novels (1993). While at Tulane she became interested in indigenous literatures and testimonial literature in a Central American context, with a particular focus on Guatemala, and in 2000 she published a broad, cultural study entitled Culture and Customs of Guatemala. She has published various articles on women writers, testimonial literature and contemporary indigenous Central American and Andean works. She is currently exploring how radical alternative literatures and performances challenge established institutional
authorities.