Dr. Marin Laufenberg

Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology & Languages

Dr. Marin Laufenberg is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Spanish and the Director of the Spanish MA Program at ISU. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. She has taught classes on language and culture including Spanish language, composition and conversation, Hispanic literature, theatre, performance, and Spanish for the health and social services. She believes that by learning a language, you acquire a new window to understanding cultures and people. In her teaching, she likes using theatrical techniques, like role playing and dialogue creation. Laufenberg relishes the opportunity to work with students in small groups or one on one, and in doing so she has helped students develop Independent Study projects, guided them to publish their original work, and has collaborated to create the first ever Spanish graduate student conference at ISU, called Arconexiones. This conference is about to celebrate its third annual event. Dr. Laufenberg studies contemporary Latin American literature with a focus on Southern Cone performance and theatre. Her research investigates the role of humor and laughter in dealing with trauma and violence in Argentinean and Chilean theatre. She has published articles on plays by Griselda Gambaro, Eduardo Rovner, Lola Arias, and La Troppa in peer-reviewed journals in addition to a book chapter dedicated to the practice of teaching theatre in the virtual format. Beyond researching theatre, she also has extensive experience in the praxis of theatre as a member and co-founder of the UW-Madison Spanish language theatre group Teatro Décimo Piso. She has lived and studied abroad in Spain, Panama, and Argentina.