Mayra Rivera

Mayra Rivera is a professor of religion and Latinx studies at Harvard University. Rivera works at the intersections between continental philosophy of religion, literature, and theories of coloniality, race, and gender--with particular attention to Caribbean postcolonial thought. Her research explores the relationship between discursive and material dimensions in shaping human embodiment. Her most recent book, Poetics of the Flesh (Duke University Press, 2015), analyzes theological,...See more

Mayra Rivera is a professor of religion and Latinx studies at Harvard University. Rivera works at the intersections between continental philosophy of religion, literature, and theories of coloniality, race, and gender--with particular attention to Caribbean postcolonial thought. Her research explores the relationship between discursive and material dimensions in shaping human embodiment. Her most recent book, Poetics of the Flesh (Duke University Press, 2015), analyzes theological, philosophical, and political descriptions of flesh as metaphors for understanding how social discourses materialize in human bodies. Rivera is currently developing a project that explores narratives of catastrophe in twentieth century Caribbean writing. See less