Isabella Vergara is LSA Collegiate Fellow and Assistant Professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. Her research centers on 20th -21st century Latin(x) American literature and visual arts. Her book-in-progress, Poetic Traces, examines how Latin(x) American poets and artists use fragile and ephemeral materials as poetic forms that resist closure and challenge conventional approaches to the past. Her scholarly contributions include articles in journals such as Discourse, Liminalities, and the Latin American Literary Review, among others. Previously, Vergara taught in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University (2023-2024).