Clearly, each new medium of expression that is discovered involves a language of its own that does not displace previous ones but rather complements them.

- José Agustín, "Forty Archetypes Draw Their Swords"

Claire Ihlendorf is a fourth year Ph.D. student in the Spanish and Portuguese Department.  Her research focuses on 1960’s Mexico, most specifically the Onda literary movement.  Her current work approaches the novel, La tumba, by José Agustín from a digital angle using deformance as a tool for interpretation.  She is also interested in how digital tools can aid reading in the Second Language classroom. 

Claire grew up in Columbus, Ohio where she became accustomed to flat land.  She moved to the mountains of Southwest Virginia to attend Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) where she was President of the Math Club and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 2005.  Her undergraduate research at that time focused on Cayley graphs and group theory. 

Having decided that she liked the mountains, she stayed at Virginia Tech to pursue her Master’s degree and received her M.A. in History/Area Studies in 2008 focusing on the representation of women in Mexican film.  While in the History Department, Claire was active in the History Graduate Student Association, as Treasurer, and the History Graduate Student Soccer Team, “Discipline and Punish” as a midfielder.

Now at UCSB, Claire is happy that she has both the mountains and the ocean to keep her company in her outdoor pursuits.  She enjoys hiking, running, and traveling.  She recently had the opportunity to travel to Mérida, Mexico to present some of her work at the Fería Internacional de la Lectura Yucatán, and hopes to return to Mérida and the D.F. soon to continue her research.