Dr. Iliana Cuellar
PRODIG+ Visiting Scholar
Iliana Cuellar is a born and raised LA girl excited to serve as PRODiG+ Fellow in English and experience east coast living. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Riverside with a dissertation titled “Palimpsexts: Autotheory as Worldmaking in Feminist Film and Video.” Her research broadly looks at how marginalized writers, artists, performers, filmmakers tell stories about themselves and their communities. It explores the potentiality of relationalities mediated through first-person narritivization.
A first-generation student and Pell Grant recipient, Iliana is committed to supporting students of all backgrounds and is passionate about equity in higher education. She received the highly selective UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship Award (2024-2025), which aims to enhance faculty pathways for historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. As a PRODiG+ Fellow, she hopes to continue contributing to initiatives in diversity and equity through her research, scholarship, and teaching.
In her free time, Iliana enjoys cooking, eating, hiking, reading, writing, watching films, doing yoga, and cuddling with her cats.
- Education
- Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of California, Riverside
- B.A., Philosophy, California State University, Los Angeles
- Teaching Areas
- Research Areas
- Recent Publications