Ashley Kerr is an assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies. She received her bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies from Middlebury College, and her master's and doctorate in Spanish from the University of Virginia. As an undergraduate, Kerr spent a year living in Valparaíso, Chile, and after graduation she taught English in Argentine Patagonia as a Fulbright English teaching assistant. She has also taught for UVa’s program abroad in Valencia, Spain, and sailed around the Atlantic as a faculty member on Semester at Sea. At the University of Idaho, she teaches upper-level courses on Latin American culture, literature and film. Her research focuses on how anthropology, politics and literature mold racial identities for indigenous and non-indigenous populations in the Southern Cone from the 19th century to the present.