Dr. Elsa Maxwell teaches literature at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile. She specializes 19th and 20th century Caribbean literature, Afro-Caribbean diasporic intellectuals, identity theory, cultural studies, women’s writing and the public sphere. She holds a masters degree in Latin American Studies and a doctoral degree in Literature from the Universidad de Chile. She has published her research in journals such as Callaloo, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and Meridional: Revista Chilena de Estudios Latinoamericanos. She is currently researching 19th century Afro Caribbean authors and their relationship to the public sphere.