Jan Gustafsson

Academic degrees:

Ph.D. at CBS, 1999

MA in Spanish Philology at University of Copenhagen, 1983. 

Current position:

Associate Professor, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, Centre for Latin American Studiess. University of Copenhagen

Previous positions:

2005-2012 Associate Professor, Department of International Culture and Communication Studies (IKK) and Director, Center for the Study of the Americas, Copenhagen Business School.

2001-2004: Assistant Professor, Department for FIRST (French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and German) and Center for the Study of the Americas, Copenhagen Business School.

1999-2000: Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense) (temporary appointment for one year), Department of History and Center for Spansk (Hispanic Studies).

1999: Post. Doc. (temporary position), Department of FIRST, Copenhagen Business School.

1995-98: Ph.D. studies, Department of Spanish/ FIRST, Copenhagen Business School

1989-1995: Part time teacher/external lecturer at the Department of Roman Languages (Spanish), University of Copenhagen.

1990-1994: External lecturer at Center for Spansk, University of Odense (later U. of Southern Denmark)

1987-1994: Part time teacher/External Lecturer at Department of Spanish, CBS.

Conference Organization:

Organizer or co-organizer of seminars or conferences:

Member of the Executive Committee for the Alexander von Humboldt Conference on Travel Literature to and from Latin America, Arcata, California 2001.

Conference on Subjectivity, CBS 2004 (part of the activities of the Danish Network for Culture and Language). (Co-organizer)

Conference:  ‘The Nation in Latin America’, CBS 2005.

Conference: Nation and Utopia in Latin America, CBS 2007.

Conference: New Thinking of Citizenship, Power and Public Space in Latin America”, University of Roskilde, DK, June 2009. (Co-organizer)

Conference: 5^th NOLAN (Nordic Latin American Research Network) Conference. University of Copenhagen and CBS, Nov. 2010. (Co-organizer).

Seminar: Latin America at its Borders – Legality, Illegality and Transgression, CBS, September 2011. (Co-organizer). 

Ph.D. Supervision and Assessment:

President of Ph.D. Jury (candidate: Klavs Odgaard Christensen. Theme: Language and National Identity in Canada and Switzerland) CBS 2004

Supervision of Ph.D. dissertation completed at the CBS, 2008 (Juntos pero no revueltos.

Un estudio de transnacionalismo y asimilación, by Helene Balslev Clausen.)

Secondary supervisor for Ph.D. dissertation at University of Roskilde and the CBS, completed 2011 (At the Pace of Cassiopeia: Being, Non-Being, Human Rights, and Development, by Julia Suárez Krabbe).

Current supervision: Undocumented Migration, Education and Human Rights (Latin Americans in the US). Doctoral student: Elisabeth Benedict Christensen.

Member of assessment committee for the following Ph.D. dissertation at Bergen University, Norway: Representasjoner av målspråksområdet i fremmedspråksfaget. En studie av Latin-Amerika i lærebøker i spansk. Doctoral student: Liv Eide. Defence: June 25 and 26, 2012.

Administrative Functions and Other Activities:  

Director, Center for the Study of the Americas, CBS, 2010-2012.

Coordinator of Research Group, “Area Studies”, at Dpt. IKK, CBS 2007-10.

Member of Jury regarding position as Assistant Professor in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Aalborg, 2007.

Member of Jury, Assistant Professorship in Latin American Studies, University of Aarhus, 2009.

Member of editorial boards: Graphen (Mexico), 2002-4, Diálogos Latinoamericanos (University of Aarhus), since 2008.

Co-president of the Danish Network for Researchers on Latin America (LA-Net), 2010-11.

Member of Jury regarding a position in Latin American Area Studies at UiO (University of Oslo). Final assessment and ranking of candidates to be handed in by late June, 2012. Other members of the Jury: Steinar Sæther, UiO, and Mona Rosendahl, Stockholm University.

Frequent commentator on Latin American issues in radio, newspapers and TV, especially at DR and TV2 (more than 100 media activities, mainly radio and TV, since 2003. For detailed information, see Publication List.)

Main Research Areas:

• Latin American culture, including popular culture, literature, and political culture
• Utopian thinking and discourse in Latin America
• Identity constructions in Latin America
• Latino communities in the US (especially Cubans)
• Theory on identity and culture
• Semiotics

Other Work Experience (Not part of University CV)

Literary Translations:

• Angeles Mastretta: Tag mit liv (original: Arráncame la vida), 1988, Tiden, Copenhagen
• Osvaldo Soriano: En beskidt, lille krig (original: No habrá más penas ni olvido), 1990, Tiden, Copenhagen
• Javier Marías: Et hjerte så hvidt (original: Corazón tan blanco), 1993, Gyldendal, Copenhagen
• Javier Marías: Følelsesmennesket (original: Un hombre sentimental), 1994, Gyldendal, Copenhagen

Literary Production:

• Havana Moon. 1992, Cicero, Copenhagen
• Sommerfuglens skrig. 1993, Cicero, Copenhagen
• Memorias de la utopía - Cuba en los 1980 y 90 - Aurora Boreal, 2017.
• Stille flyder Havanas gader. Apuleius Æsel, 2019.
• Pandemia. Apuleius Æsel, 2022. 

Associate Professor, PhD in Latin American and Hispanic studies. Main areas: Latin American culture, literature and history. 

Primary research areas: 

Current Latin American narrative fiction

Latin American culture, including music, film, literature, and political culture

Utopia as a phenomenon, utopia as methodological and theoretical concept

Theory within cultural and identity studies

Current research projects: 

Photography in relation to narrative fiction. Theory and empirical studies. 

Music and subjectivity in Latin America. 

Dimensions of utopia in revolutionary Cuba. 

Main areas of teaching and supervision: 

Latin America: History, culture, literature, politics

Literarure in Spanish

Nation and identity in Latin America

Current Latin American politics and society, including the new left movements, indigenous people's movements, feminism, and perceptions of human-nature relations. 

Office hours: Thursday 12-14