After 26 years as a faculty member in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University, Rocío Quispe Agnoli, Professor of Latin American Literatures and Cultures, will begin a new chapter as an Emeritum Professor at the end of this academic year. Before that, she will deliver the 2026 College of Arts & Letters Legacy Lecture, an honor recognizing her contributions to the college, the university, and the broader MSU community.
Quispe Agnoli will deliver her Legacy Lecture, titled “The Hispanicverse: An Ocean of Knowledge,” on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, Lincoln Room. The event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are requested by Friday, March 26.
“The Hispanicverse,” says Quispe Agnoli, “is a puzzle, a maze, a labyrinth that encompasses not only my journey at Michigan State University, but my life as a reader, a teacher, a mentee and a mentor, a colleague, a researcher, and a writer. I depart from my reflection on the decolonial concept of pluriverse and the science fiction notion of multiverse, to think about the idea of a Hispanicverse.”
An internationally recognized teacher-scholar of Colonial Latin American literatures and cultures whose work bridges Indigenous and decolonial studies, gender and women’s studies, and, more recently, Hispanic speculative and futurist fiction, Quispe Agnoli’s specialization and the scope of her research interests are not only defined by issues of race and ethnicity but also by questions about the position of the feminine and the masculine in gender studies; processes of cognition, perception, and (self) representation; and the transformation of their meanings according to the cultural context in which they are used and reused.
Quispe Agnoli’s research reshapes understandings of Andean intellectual histories, text-image relations, and women’s textual agency, with seminal analyses of Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala and Inca-descendant lineages in late colonial Mexico.
Her publications include monographs and edited volumes that have seen significant uptake in the field, alongside more than 80 articles in flagship venues. She has also been the editor-in-chief of REGS/Journal of Gender and Sexuality Studies (2020-2024), published by MSU Press. Quispe Agnoli has authored five scholarly books, including La fe andina en la escritura (2006); Nobles de papel (2016), which received the 2017 Flora Tristán Book Award from the Latin American Studies Association’s Peru Section; Women’s Negotiations and Textual Agency in Latin America, 1500–1799 (2017); Latin American Literatures in Transition, pre-1492–1800 (2022); and her most recent, Qhipa Pacha: Futurismo Peruano/Peruvian Futurism (2024), a bilingual anthology and the first systematic study of visions of the future in Peruvian narratives. The latter extends her impact in foregrounding South American and Peruvian futurisms, especially among women writers — a shift that has broadened MSU’s humanities footprint and aligned with global decolonial discourses.
Her book Durmiendo en el agua (short fiction, 2008), published under the pen name Rocío Qespi, and short stories published in various collections have received short-fiction prizes, extending MSU’s engagement with communities across the global Spanish-speaking world.
Quispe Agnoli is a high‑impact teacher and mentor whose courses — spanning colonial Andean literatures, Indigenous textualities, and gendered authorship — are repeatedly cited by students for their clarity, care, and rigor. Her teaching has had a demonstrable, lasting impact on student learning, particularly through courses that integrate colonial Latin American texts, Indigenous epistemologies, and gender analysis. Her classes are widely recognized for combining high intellectual rigor with inclusive, supportive pedagogy, enabling students to engage critically with difficult historical materials while developing advanced analytical and writing skills. Public student evaluations consistently describe her courses as inspirational, intellectually challenging, and transformative.
Quispe Agnoli has received many honors and distinctions in recognition of her dedication and devotion to teaching, research, and community outreach. Among her many recognitions, she was named a William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty member in 2022. This award, one of the university’s most prestigious faculty honors, recognizes a comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and/or creative activities, instruction, and outreach.
She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from MSU’s Women of Color Collective in 2024; the GenCen Inspirational Woman of the Year in 2019; the College of Arts & Letters’ Faculty Leadership Award in 2016; the Peruvian Woman of the Year Award, granted by the Embassy of Peru in the United States, in 2013; the Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012 (IAH); and has served in Harvard University’s Quechua Initiative on Global Indigenity since 2022.
Established in 2021 by the College of Arts & Letters Culture of Care Retirement Subcommittee, the Legacy Lecture offers honorees the opportunity to deliver a 60-minute lecture they have always wanted to give, focusing on their creative work and research.
Anthony Grubbs, Chair of the Department of Romance and Classical Studies, nominated Quispe Agnoli for this honor.
Grubbs wrote in his nomination: “One of the areas in which Professor Quispe Agnoli’s intellectual leadership prominently stands is her remarkable and natural ability to forge meaningful and richly dynamic scholarly connections that cut across language, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries to initiate and lead transformational conversations about wide-ranging, timely, and relevant humanities topics in language pedagogy, cultural and literary studies, visual and media studies, and beyond.”
By Austin Curtis and Kim Popiolek
