Aarti Smith Madan is an Associate Professor of Spanish & International Studies in WPI’s Department of Humanities & Arts. In addition to directing the Buenos Aires Project Center and co-directing Latin American & Caribbean Studies, she’s advised three cohorts of junior-year IQPs in Puerto Rico (2012), Costa Rica (2015), and Australia (2023) as well as a number of Minor and Major Capstone projects in Spanish and International Studies. Aarti completed her undergraduate degrees in Spanish and English from Birmingham-Southern College, where she had her first forays into experiential learning and became convinced of its life-long impact on students. Holding a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, Aarti centers her teaching and research on questions of national identity, spatial & environmental humanities, and global feminisms in Latin American literary and visual culture. In 2013, she was awarded the Moruzzi Prize for Innovation in Undergraduate Education and has continued to experiment with new pedagogies, most recently unessays and ungrading. In 2020, she formed part of a multiyear grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance WPI’s STEM curriculum with Latin American & Caribbean Studies. Aarti is the author of Lines of Geography in Latin American Narrative: National Territory, National Literature (Palgrave, 2017), essays in journals like ASAP/Journal, MLN, Romance Notes, and Dissidences, and book chapters on geo- and ecocritical practices in Latin America & India. Her current research project examines Argentine & Indian literary and cultural encounters over the last century (1926-2023). At present, Aarti serves as co-chair of the Department of Humanities & Arts’ DEI Committee and as faculty advisor to WPI’s chapters of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She’s enjoyed a decade of volunteering with the Women’s Initiative of Central Massachusetts—Worcester’s premiere philanthropic organization in support of middle-school girls—and will serve as Chair of its Leadership Council from 2023-25. In her free time, she loves cooking with and for family and friends, getting lost in bustling cities, walking slowly through the woods, and soaking in sunshine and live music, preferably at the same time.