Geovani Ramírez Assistant Professor

Dr. Geovani Ramírez (Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an assistant professor of Chicanx/Latinx literary criticism and cultural studies in Emory’s department of English. 

As a literary critic, Ramírez looks to literary portrayals of laboring sites to consider the matrix of colonialism, racism, sexism, and ableism that informs “Latinx Environmentalisms.” Drawing from ecocritical, ecofeminist, and disability studies frameworks, his interdisciplinary and public-facing research places Chicanx/Latinx Studies in conversation with the environmental and medical/health humanities. Ramírez’s first book, The Burning Question of Labor, traces how poor working regulations, anti-immigrant legislation, and lax environmental policies harm and/or disable Latinx people.

Dr. Ramírez’s work has been featured in such journals as Ethnic Studies Review, Literature and Medicine, and Latinx Talk. His research has been supported by UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South and the Critical Ethnic Studies Collective. In 2023, he was awarded a Juneteenth research award from Virginia Tech University’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, where he was previously an assistant professor of Latinx Studies. 

Ramírez has been recognized for his public-facing work and enduring commitment and service to diverse populations. He has been inducted into the Frank Porter Graham Honor Society and the Order of the Golden Fleece and has also been the recipient of UNC’s University Diversity award and the Carolina Latinx Center’s Orgullo Award for Service, Scholarship, Leadership, and Advocacy.

Dr. Ramírez teaches various courses in Latinx cultural expressions that include a focus on major authors, environmentalisms, illness and healing narratives, and growing up Latinx. 

• B.A., The University of North Carolina at Wilmington (summa cum laude)

• M.A., North Carolina State University

• Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill