Laura Berríos is a Ph.D student in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia University. Her research examines representations of violence and narcoculture in contemporary literature and popular music from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. She holds a B.A. in Hispanic Studies with an emphasis on Hispanic American and Puerto Rican Literature from the University of Puerto Rico.
As an undergraduate, Laura was a Mellon Mays Fellow, researching the construction of Hispanic American literary canons, national identities and the ties between aesthetics and politics, present in the avant-garde poetry of the Puerto Rican nationalist activist Clemente Soto Vélez. Prior to joining LAIC, she worked as a youth tutor with the community-based initiave Huerto, Vivero y Bosque Urbano de Capetillo in Río Piedras. Currently, she collaborates with the Small Axe journal as an editorial assistant.
