Megan Saltzman

she/her

  • Senior Lecturer in Spanish
Megan Saltzman

Professor Megan Saltzman’s research focuses on contemporary urban culture of Spanish cities with a transnational and ethnographic approach. Her 2024 book, combines literary and visual arts with ethnographic fieldwork to expose how everyday practices in public space (sitting, playing, street selling) not only challenge the city’s policed image but also serve to carve out autonomy from below. Saltzman has published on urban cultural themes in Spain related to gentrification, spatial in/exclusion, immigration, nostalgia, recycling, urban furniture design, grassroots cultural centers and “artivism.”

Since 2002, Prof. Saltzman has been teaching a wide variety of cultural and literary topics of the Spanish-, Spanglish- and Catalan-speaking world, in addition to Spanish language. Most recently she has been teaching courses that revolve around three themes: (1) urban studies, (2) material and non-human culture, and (3) multicultural identities in the Spanish-speaking world’s expanding geography (Spain, Latin America, Latinx communities in the United States, Asia, and Africa). Her courses are usually cross listed with other majors such as Architectural Studies, Environmental Studies and Critical Social Thought.

Saltzman’s classes typically incorporate both experiential out-of-class activities as well as conversations with people who work within the topics of study but are not academically affiliated (e.g., artists, filmmakers, urban planners). This has proven effective in not only connecting students with lesser-known perspectives and future possibilities but also engaging a wide range of students’ learning abilities.

Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Saltzman worked as an Associate Professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and an Assistant Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She also held positions at Grinnell College, the University of Michigan and Amherst College.

Areas of Expertise

Global Spanish Cultural Studies

Education

  • Ph.D., M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Happening at Mount Holyoke

Recent campus news

Megan Saltzman, new faculty at Mount Holyoke, researches public spaces in Spain and immigrant communities of the Spanish-speaking world, which today includes nearly every continent.

Recent Publications

Saltzman, M. . Palgrave Macmillan, 2024. ISBN: 9783031577956

Saltzman, M. “.” Translation of short story by Luis Arriola Ayala. Latin American Literary Review. Volume: 51 Issue: 102, 2024. DOI: 10.26824/lalr.415

Saltzman, M. “”&Բ;Spain after the Indignados/15M Movement: the 99% Speaks Out, edited by Oscar Pereira and Steven L. Torres. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. DOI: 978-3-030-19435-2_13

Saltzman, M. Review of the book “” by Prádanos, Luis. Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, volume 22, 2020. DOI: 14636204.2020.1801959 

Saltzman, M. “”&Բ;Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, volume 23, 2019. Special section: “Ecología y estudios culturales ibéricos en el siglo XXI.”

Recent Honors

Saltzman, M. Regional Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wolf Humanities Center, seminar “Stuff,” 2018-2019.

Saltzman, M. Invited lecture for Columbia School of Professional Studies Pre-College, “Resisting Mass Tourism and City Branding,” February 21, 2021.

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