Members
The list below shows Durham University research staff who are members of IMEMS. Click the member's name to see a more detailed biography and department.
We also welcome anyone from outside the University with an interest in our work to join. Membership is free of charge. You will receive invitations to our programme of events, with a weekly emails digest about what is happening in the Insitute and further afield. To join IMEMS contact: admin.imems@durham.ac.uk

Dr Yarí Pérez Marín, BA Harvard; MA, PhD Brown
Contact Dr Yarí Pérez Marín (email at yari.perez-marin@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Yarí Pérez Marín specializes in colonial Latin American literature and culture. She has received awards from the Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and has been a fellow-in-residence at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, RI. In her upcoming book project, Marvels of Medicine: Literature and Scientific Inquiry in Early Colonial Spanish America, she examines texts written in Spain and colonial Mexico in which American nature takes center stage in the ongoing feud between Renaissance humanism and experiential modes of knowledge-production. Her analysis makes a case for the incorporation of scientific writing into current discussions on early modern historiography and literature.
Research Interests
- Caribbean Literature and Culture
- Colonial Latin America
- Early Modern Studies
- Film Studies
- History of Science
Selected Publications
Authored book
- Pérez-Marín, Yarí (2020). Marvels of Medicine: Literature and Scientific Inquiry in Early Colonial Spanish America. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Book review
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2016). Review of New Argentine Cinema, by Jens Andermann. Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 13(3): 339-342.
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2012). Review of Missionary Scientists: Jesuit Science in Spanish South America, 1570-1810, by Andrés I. Prieto. Colonial Latin American Historical Review (CLAHR) 17.4(Fall 2008 [2012]): 377-378.
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2010). Review of Approaches to Teaching the Writings of Bartolomé de Las Casas, edited by Santa Arias and Eyda M. Merediz. Latin American Literary Review 38.76(76): 115-118.
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2009). Review of Transatlantic Topographies: Islands, Highlands, Jungles, by Ileana Rodríguez. Letras femeninas XXXV(2): 385-87.
Chapter in book
- (2021). The Circulation of Knowledge in Early Colonial New Spain: A Plural Landscape. In Early Modern Universities: Networks of Higher Learning. Brill Publishers.
- Pérez Marín, Y. (2020). Empathy, Patients' Needs, and Therapeutic Innovation in the Medical Literature of Early Viceregal Mexico. In Geopolitics, Culture, and the Scientific Imaginary in Latin America. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. 103-116.
- (2015). Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. In The Literary Encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. 5.1.1.00.
- (2014). Lectoras de medicina: el recetario del Convento de la Purísima Concepción. In En torno al documento. Universidad de San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) and Colegio de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades (COCISOH), Ecuador. 83-91.
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2011). Lecturas en celuloide: el personaje indígena latinoamericano en el 'cine de época'. In Estudios coloniales latinoamericanos en el siglo XXI nuevos itinerarios. Kirk, Stephanie University of Pittsburgh, USA: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana. 183-210.
Conference Paper
- (2016), Iberian Portraits in Early Colonial Peripheries', Visual Culture/Visual Anthropology Research Conversation, Centre for Visual Art and Culture, Durham University, UK, Visual Culture/Visual Anthropology Research Conversation, Durham University Centre for Visual Art and Culture. Durham, England.
- (2015), Medical Texts in Early Modern Latin America', Science in Text and Culture in Latin America Network symposium, Oxford University, UK.
- (2015), Medicina e historia natural en los Comentarios reales de Inca Garcilaso', Jornadas Internacionales: Las Indias y los discursos virreinales, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain.
- (2015), Skin and Markers of Disease in the Medical Literature of Early Colonial Mexico', Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Durham University, UK, Skin: A One Day Symposium on Hispanic Arts and Cultures. Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Durham, England, Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Durham.
- (2015), The Circulation of Knowledge in Early Colonial New Spain: A Plural Landscape', British Academy Workshop, Worlds and Networks of Higher Learning: Modes of Interaction between Universities, Academies and Schools, 1400-1750, Northumbria University, UK, Northumbria University, Northumbria University.
- (2015), The Postnational as National: Ecuadorian Cinema and the Work of Sebastián Cordero', International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), San Juan, Puerto Rico, International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan.
- (2014), Reading Monardes in Sixteenth Century Mexico, France and England', Sixteenth Century Society Conference, New Orleans, LA, USA, Sixteenth Century Society Conference, New Orleans, LA, USA.
Journal Article
- Pérez Marín, Yarí (2014). Hands of God: Evangelization and Visual Representation in Juan de la Cruz's Doctrina Christiana (1571). Colonial Latin American Historical Review 19(3): 291-316.
- Yarí Pérez Marín (2011). La tierra enferma: representaciones tempranas del Caribe y el discurso patológico. Estudios revista de investigaciones literarias y culturales 17(34): 261-285.
Selected Grants
- 2009: Kaplan Humanities Scholars Program Grant (Northwestern University)
- 2008: John Carter Brown Library Fellowship (Brown University)
- 2007: Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship