Nayid Contreras

PhD Candidate
nayid.contreras@mail.utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • Modern and Contemporary Hispanic Literatures and Cultures

Areas of Interest

  • Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Queer literature;
  • Queer temporality, AIDS narratives and Affect theory;
  • Comparative literature, Gay and Film theory;
  • Critical discourse analysis;
  • Latin American Studies.

Working Dissertation

Title

Queer Temporality and the AIDS Crisis in Latin American and Colombian Narratives

Supervisors

Professor Eva-Lynn Jagoe
Professor Victor Rivas
Professor Susan Antebi

Description

My dissertation represents one of the first literary, historical, and critical analyses of queer temporalities within contemporary Colombian LGBTQ+ texts and visual art that engage with the HIV/AIDS crisis. It closely analyzes how queer identities are constructed within national narratives and transformed through encounters with myself, the disease, and the passage of time. My work seeks to challenge traditional notions of the futurity and longevity while also considering individual factors such as the marginalization, visualization, and agency of HIV/AIDS+ queer individuals during and after the "AIDS crisis." As I delve into the (re)imagining of the HIV/AIDS+ queer body against the cultural and historical backdrop of the AIDS crisis, my thesis builds upon the scholarly contributions of renowned North American academics such as Jack Halberstam, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Dinshaw, Edelman, Freccero, Goldberg, Haffey, Muñoz, Stockton, among others.

Biography

Nayid Contreras is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at the University of Toronto, with a joint Collaborative Specialization in Diaspora and Transnational Studies. His research focuses on contemporary Latin American literature, particularly Colombian queer and "travesti" texts. He explores how queer temporality is portrayed in these works, reimagining traditional ideas of the future and longevity. Additionally, Nayid examines how these narratives contextualize the experiences of HIV/AIDS+ queer ill populations during and after the "AIDS crisis."

Nayid's academic achievements include receiving the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year, as well as the Graduate Buchanan Travel Fellowship Award in 2023, the Faculty of Arts and Science Top Doctoral Award in 2019-2020, and the LAS Undergraduate Engagement Award in 2021-2022. He was also recognized as a Fellow of the University of Toronto School of Cities' Urban Leadership and Academy in 2021.

In addition to his research, Nayid has experience as a Spanish Instructor and Teaching Assistant for SPA100Y1Y (Spanish for Beginners) and the Latin American Studies program. His teaching approach emphasizes collaboration and active learning techniques. He believes in empowering students as active participants in their learning process.

Nayid is also dedicated to creating inclusive communities. He served as a Peer Mentor Navigator for racialized students at the Inclusion Peer Program Office at the University of Toronto in 2021 and currently volunteers as a representative for students with disabilities as a Student Ambassador for Lime Connect North America since 2017.

Education

MA, University of British Columbia
BA, University of British Columbia
BCom, Columbia College and Mount Royal University

Presentations

Contreras, N. “Producción y traducción cultural de la voz indígena: Geo-ecología, política y raza en Perú y Brasil.” Individual Presentation: “La visión del intelectual en Los 7 ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana de Mariátegui.”
Contreras, N. “Examinando las temporalidades queer en A la cas(z)a del chico espantapájaros.” The Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS): Security and Insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean. Toronto, Canada.
Contreras, N. “El lenguaje del afecto y la temporalidad queer en Alicia en un mundo real.” Exocanónicos: III Congreso Internacional en los Márgenes de la literatura, Poder y resistencia. Universidad de Salamanca. Salamanca, Spain, Oct 20-21, 2022.
Contreras, N. "Prostitution and the Trans Identity in Locas de Felidad: 'Crónicas travestis y otros relatos'.” LASA2023 Hybrid Congress: América Latina y el Caribe: Pensar, Representar y Luchar por los Derechos. Panel: “Sexual Transgression..."
Contreras, N. (September 2019). "The Role of Literature in Fernando Molano's Trilogy: How Triple Social Rejection (Poverty, Homosexuality and HIV/AIDS) Affects the Marginalized Gay Writer". XXXV Levy-Wasteneys Symposium, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Contreras, N. (March and May 2018). "Exploring Starbucks' Influence on the Small-Coffee Farmer: Nariño in Colombia". Latin American Studies Association (LASA) in a Globalized World, Barcelona, Spain. May 23-26, 2018
Contreras, N. "La precariedad laboral y la crisis del sujeto contemporáneo en Yo, Precario de Javier López Menacho." Exocanónicos, I Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores: En los márgenes de la literatura. Universidad de Salamanca. Online. 2020.
Contreras, N. "La visión del intelectual en Los 7 ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana de Mariátegui." LASA: Crisis global, desigualdades y centralidad de la vida, Vancouver, Canada. May 26-2, 2021.

Cohort

  • 2019-2020