Meet the School of Arts and Humanities’ Newest Faculty

Story by:

• Erika Johnson- [email protected]

Published Date

Mariana Katz is a historian of modern Latin America, specializing in 19th century Paraguay and the broader River Plate region. As an Argentinian scholar and instructor, she is eager to introduce UC San Diego students to Latin American history and to the region's distinct intellectual traditions.

Katz is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled "The Labor of the State: Unfree Workers and the Making of Paraguay's First Republic (1811-1864)," which analyzes the connections between labor coercion and the emergence of new republics after colonialism. The work focuses on Paraguay, showing how after independence from Spain, the new governments required the labor of an array of unfree workers.

"I'm particularly interested in forms of political action that workers envisioned in the context of an authoritarian republic, where most forms of politics were banned," said Katz. "I encountered many instances in which these workers denounced overseers for corruption, accused slaveholders of treason, spread rumors and even claimed a right to the state's cattle and horses."

In parallel to her monograph, Katz is developing a separate research project on Guaraní people's movements to establish Indigenous self-rule after the end of colonialism in the borderlands of present-day Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

Read our full Q&A with Katz.

Department of Literature

Eve Eure | Assistant Professor

Eve Eure is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work intersects Black Studies and Native and Indigenous Studies. Her research explores complex entanglements of identity across 19th and 20th century African American and Native American literatures, with attention to kinship, slavery, archival studies, legal studies, visual culture and futurism.

As part of the Designing Just Futures Initiative, her teaching and research holds many connections across the university. "I am energized by the possibility of bringing the field of Black Studies and Native and Indigenous Studies into conversation with colleagues, students and community partners who are already reimagining the humanities in collaborative ways across the Department of Literature, Design Lab, Indigenous Futures Institute and Black Studies Project," said Eure.

Eure is currently working on a book, "The Grammar of Kinship: Black and Native Intimacies in the 19th Century," which traces relations among Afro-Native, Black, and Native and Indigenous communities in the U.S. that were often obscured or erased within settler frameworks of governance.

She is also developing a hybrid family narrative that moves between English and German, blending genres to trace the entanglements of history, memory and migration. And in her art-based narrative essay, "From Louisiana to Guatemala: The Migration of Southdown Plantation's Last Operational Sugar Mill," she follows the afterlife of Southdown Plantation's final mill-from its dismantling in Louisiana to its reassembly in Guatemala, where it remains in use today.

Read our full Q&A with Eure.

Department of Theatre and Dance

Andrea Caban | Associate Teaching Professor

Andrea Caban is an actor, director, playwright and expert in voice, speech and accents. In her courses, she teaches students to execute and appreciate all the sounds in human language so that they can become more confident and dexterous speakers within any creative context.

"I was drawn into this work through my actor training, but my work has evolved into creating a pedagogy that values all sounds and de-centers standard accents," explained Caban. "The more voices, the more unique experiences, the better our art becomes because it can then better serve the entirety of our culture instead of a privileged few."

For over a decade Caban has led the Knight-Thompson Speechwork Teacher Certification Program. She has also co-authored two widely used texts on inclusive speech and accent pedagogy for teachers. The works present a universal system for instructors to educate students on accurate and authentic accents grounded in linguistic science and cultural competency.

Caban's creative projects are also motivated by a deep interest in arts-based medical research. For example, she wrote and performed a solo piece titled "The Voice Bank," based on her work with a client living with ALS. Her coaching supported the client in preserving strength and flexibility in their vocal tract and breathing function for as long as possible.

Read our full Q&A with Caban.

Department of Visual Arts

Alison O'Daniel | Associate Professor and inaugural Suraj Israni Chancellor's Endowed Chair in Cinematic Arts

Alison O'Daniel is a visual artist and filmmaker working across sound, moving image, sculpture, installation and performance. O'Daniel is d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing, and her research, art practice and teaching are informed by a deep investment in disability justice.

O'Daniel interrogates sonic and aural hierarchies, and prioritizes poetic and practical strategies toward accessibility. She examines the politics of production, representation and reception regarding sound and acts of listening across multiple mediums, bridging art and disability studies.

"I have been deaf/Hard of Hearing since birth and all of these art forms help me understand the social strata of sound, hearing, d/Deafness and listening," said O'Daniel. "Art is a space to analyze and study what is unfolding in our interior and exterior worlds and thrillingly gives us permission to contemplate the method, the mode, the madness of an experience."

She recently completed a decade-long feature film "The Tuba Thieves" which she directed and produced with a cast and crew of Deaf and hearing/non-signing collaborators. It premiered in 2023 at Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast by PBS, and garnered a Guggenheim Fellowship.

She is already at work on her next film, "Inframince," which weaves documentary and narrative styles to examine sonic warfare, aural control and the ubiquity of ableism.

Read our full Q&A with O'Daniel.

Robert Twomey | Assistant Teaching Professor

Robert Twomey is an artist and engineer exploring the poetic intersections of human and machine perception, particularly how emerging technologies shape intimate life. Blending traditional forms with new tools, he examines empathy, agency, imagination, and desire in human-computer interaction.

Twomey earned an MFA in Visual Arts at UC San Diego and later returned as a postdoctoral researcher. When considering his career path, he was drawn to both engineering and studio art, ultimately finding his place in computational art. "I've always appreciated how we can bring the whole human to work in the arts - whether personally, or in thinking through broader social and emotional contexts," he said. "I get to develop emerging technologies while also thinking through their personal, social and emotional consequences."

Currently, Twomey is engaged in two main projects. "Quantum Theater," which premiered at SIGGRAPH 2025's Spatial Storytelling program, uses quantum science as both subject and method for playable theater. Visitors improvise with tools that embody concepts like entanglement and superposition.

His other work, "Best Friends Forever," is a new media artwork and experimental documentary that follows two artist-researchers co-parenting quadruped robot dogs running local large language models (LLMs). The piece is a poetic exploration of machine intimacy at the frontiers of art, AI and everyday life.

Read our full Q&A with Twomey.

Topics covered:

• School of Arts and Humanities

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