The Honors College is so excited to welcome Gabriel Guzmán Camacho as its new Assistant Professor (Lecturer). Gabriel is a writer, researcher, and educator whose work blends literature, memory, and political history with a focus on justice and storytelling. He brings an interdisciplinary and personal approach to the classroom, shaped by experiences across cultures, borders, and languages.
A Life Across Borders
Gabriel was born in Brazil and grew up in Bolivia before moving to the United States for graduate school. His background gives him a unique lens on identity, culture, and power. He earned his PhD in Latin American Literatures and Cultures from Ohio State University, where he also taught courses on language, literature, and Latin American film.
Living in different places and navigating multiple languages has helped him see how personal stories connect to larger histories. “The past is never just the past,” he says. “It shapes how we imagine the future.”
Teaching with Curiosity and Care
Gabriel’s classes center on discussion, critical thinking, and student agency. He wants students to feel empowered not just to analyze texts, but to ask questions and connect ideas to the world around them. Whether reading literature or exploring visual media, he invites students to think deeply and explore how knowledge can be a tool for change.
He is particularly interested in the role of storytelling across different media, especially how visual and narrative forms like comics can serve as entry points for exploring violence, inequality, and memory. “Comics can make hard histories more accessible,” he explains. “They allow us to imagine different futures and revisit the past in powerful ways.”
Research That Connects Memory and Justice
Gabriel’s research focuses on how societies remember histories of violence, especially in post dictatorship Bolivia. Through archival work, he studies truth commissions, testimonies, and cultural responses that help or sometimes fail to help communities in their healing process. For him, remembering is not just an academic exercise but an ethical act.
“Memory work is about power,” he says. “It is about who gets to tell the story, what is remembered, and what is forgotten.”
Creativity, Community, and Collective Work
Beyond the classroom, Gabriel is a poet and fiction writer, with a strong interest in collaborative, community based creative work. He co-wrote the award winning short film Cartas a Soledad, helped launch the bilingual podcast Amefrica Landina, and has organized public events such as film screenings and community talks. He is also active in creative writing communities and workshops, where he explores how imagination and narrative can be tools for collective reflection and transformation.
For Gabriel, teaching, research, and activism are all connected. He sees learning as a collaborative process that thrives in community and sparks both personal growth and social change.
What to Expect in His Classes
If you take a class with Gabriel, expect to read, think, and create. He creates a space where students are invited to bring their full selves into the conversation and examine how stories shape the world around us. Above all, he aims to inspire curiosity, encourage critical thinking, and spark bold visions for a more just future.
Tia Wisco | Journalism Intern, University of Utah Honors College