She received her Ph.D. in 2014 from Purdue University with a dissertation on the travel narratives of the Cuban-Spanish author Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda (1814-1873), the British botanist Maria Graham (1785-1842) who spent several years in Latin America, and the Brazilian writer Nisia Floresta (1810-1885). In the dissertation, she demonstrates how their unique condition of voluntary exile from their respective countries offered them unparalleled opportunities to participate in debates on scientific topics carried out by prominent male authors of the time. Her research interests include women's travel writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Latin American and Hispanic literature, gender and women studies, cultural studies, and history of science.