Spanish Department
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97202
About
Mónica López Lerma is Associate Professor of Spanish and Humanities. She received a PhD in Comparative Literature and a Graduate Certificate in Film Studies from the University of Michigan. She also holds a Law degree from the University of Valencia (Spain) and a LL.M. in Jurisprudence from the European Academy of Legal Theory (Belgium). At Reed she teaches a variety of interdisciplinary courses in film theory, political documentaries, law and violence, justice and the senses, cinema and human rights, and comparative literature. She has also taught at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, the Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia, and the School of International Relations of the Kyrgyz State National University.
Mónica’s research interests include contemporary Spanish film and literature, with particular emphasis on film theory, gender, aesthetics, politics, memory, and law and humanities. She is the author of Sensing Justice through Contemporary Spanish Cinema: Aesthetics, Politics, Law (Edinburgh University Press, 2021). She is also the editor of Cartografías in/justas: Representaciones culturales del espacio urbano y rural en la España contemporánea (Editorial Comares, 2024) and the co-editor of Rancière and Law (Routledge, 2018). She is currently working on a new book project tentatively titled Documentaries Against the Law: Evidence, Affect, and Reflexivity.
From 2012 to 2017, Mónica was editor-in-chief of No-Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law. Currently she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Media & Rights. Mónica’s research has been funded by numerous fellowships, such as the Finnish Cultural Foundation Grant, the Jean Monnet Graduate Fellowship, and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Research Fellowship.
Education
PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, 2010
Graduate Certificate in Film Studies, Department of Film, Television and Media, University of Michigan, 2009
D.E.A. in Law, Department of Moral and Political Philosophy of Law, University of Valencia, 2004
LL.M. in Jurisprudence, European Academy of Legal Theory, 2000
Erasmus Student, Law School, University of Orleans, 1996-1997
Licenciate in Law, University of Valencia, 1997