Dr. Barrenechea has an extensive background in Comparative Literature. He has developed two primary research tracks in literature and cinema studies. In both cases his work ranges over the territories of North, Central, and South America from the pre-Columbian era to the present. His first book, America Unbound: Encyclopedic Literature and Hemispheric Studies (University of New Mexico Press) is a study of how the maximalist novel reimagines early European and Native American cultural encounters in the New World. Dr. Barrenechea is also a scholar and teacher of Hollywood, art, and—most recently—exploitation films. His book-in-progress, Hemispheric Horrors: Monsters, Trash, and Exploitation Cinema of the Americas, tackles the latter in a comparative inter-American context. His course rotation includes Film, Text, and Culture, Introduction to Film Studies, New World Writing in the Colonial Period, Literature and Nation-Building in the Americas, and Hemispheric Fiction of the Global Age.
B.A., Fordham University; M.Phil., Ph.D., Yale University. UMW Directory Profile.