Obed Lira's scholarship focuses on Colonial Latin American Literature, primarily 16th and 17th centuries, Classical Nahuatl literary and visual culture, and post-colonial and subaltern studies. He is currently spearheading the Florentine Codex Project, a collaborative Digital Humanities project that consists of a scholarly digital edition of Bernardino de Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España.  Prof. Lira is also completing a book project that centers on the emotive rhetoric of humanitarian friar Bartolomé de las Casas.

Educational Background

• Ph.D, Harvard University

• A.M, Harvard University

• B.A. St. John's College

Courses 

• Latin American Cultural Traditions
• Feeling the Spanish Conquest
• Latinx Literature in the U.S.

• Sor Juana: Poet, Thinker, Icon

Research Interests 

• Colonial Latin American Literature              
• Classical Nahuatl Literary and Visual Culture                       
• Early Modern Spanish Literature                              
• Affect Theory
• Postcolonial Theory
• Digital Humanities
• History of Science and Mathematics

Selected Publications

“Cloistered Infinity: Sor Juana and the Metaphor of the Infinite Sphere.” Colonial Latin American Review, vol. 28 issue 4, 2019, pp. 538-555.

“New World Barbarians in Rinconete y Cortadillo” in Cervantes Transatlántico/Transatlantic Cervantes. Eds. Francisco Ramírez Santacruz and Pedro Ángel Palou. Ibérica. Peter Lang Publishing, 2019, pp. 33-47.

“Bartolomé de las Casas, un lenguaje.” Public History Project of Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas - NOTICONQUISTA, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), 2019.

“Wonder and the Ethics of Proximity in Las Casas's Apologética historia sumaria.” Hispanic Review, vol. 87 no. 3, 2019, pp. 309-331