Ben V. Olguín is the Robert and Liisa Erickson Presidential Chair in English, and the Director of the Global Latinidades Center, in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He originally is from Houston, Texas and received his B.A. from the University of Houston, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. He has held Ford Postdoctoral and National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Research Fellowships and also is the Principal Investigator in over $2.5 million in grants, and Co-Principal Investigator others. Olguín has been a member of the faculty in the English departments at Cornell University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, with two visiting appointments in the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Professor Olguín’s interdisciplinary areas of expertise include Chicanx and Latinx Literary and Cultural Studies, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, American and Latin American Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Speculative literature and film, Human Rights theory and praxis, Marxist and materialist theories of praxis, Medical and Health Humanities, and Creative Writing. His research, writing, teaching, and service activities explore the complex relationships between vernacular culture and performances of power and counter-power in local, transnational, cross-border, and hemispheric venues. He pursues this inquiry through interdisciplinary diachronic studies of institutions and myriad contact zones where intersecting and often conflicting cultures, identities, and ideologies are negotiated.

In addition to articles published in Cultural Critique, American Literary History, Aztlán, Frontiers, Biography, MELUS, and Nepantla, Olguín is the author of the single-authored research monographs La Pinta: Chicana/o History, Culture, and Politics (University of Texas Press, 2010), and Violentologies: Violence, Identity, and Ideology in Latina/o Literature (Oxford University Press, 2020). He currently is working on a new research monograph, Raza Lumpen: Latinx Underclass Archetypes and Vernacular Intellectuals.

Professor Olguín’s collaborative research involves scholars from the US and several countries in Europe and the Americas, and ranges across his multiple areas of expertise. He is co-editor with Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez of Latina/os and WWII: Mobility, Agency, and Ideology (University of Texas Press, 2014); co-editor with Cathryn Josefina Merla-Watson of Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (University of Washington Press, 2017), which won a 2018 American Book Award; and co-editor with Josephine Metcalf of In the Long Run: Luis J. Rodríguez’s Life and Literary Legacy (Edinburgh University Press 2025). He also is co-curator with Roberto Macías and Cecilia Rivas on a double-dossier sequence in the journal Aztlán titled, The Global Latinidades: Transhemispheric Latina/o/x Studies (Aztlán 2023). He currently is co-editor with Jaime Gonzalez and Jennifer Ponce de León on a three-volume anthology project, Raza Marxisms: Excavations of the Latinx Revolutionary Left, with the first edition planned for 2027.

Professor Olguín also is a published creative writer and member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, founded by Sandra Cisneros. He has authored two collections of poetry, Red Leather Gloves (Hansen Publishing, 2014), based on his experiences as an amateur boxer, and At the Risk of Seeming Ridiculous: Poems from Cuba Libre (Aztlán Libre Press, 2014), which relates to his membership and activities in the Venceremos Brigade. He currently is working on a new collection of poetry about his experiences as a volunteer medic, Pericardial Tamponade, Or This is How You Die; a collection of speculative short stories, Mountain Time: Cuentos de Colorado; and a trilogy of travel writing, The Road is Red, which includes Volume 1: The Spanish Notebooks: Hemispheric Crossroads, Collective Futures, and the True Spirit of Duende; Volume 2: Archipelagos: Journeys, Sojourns, and the Sea; and Volume 3: Desde Abajo/From Below: Localized Globalities and Cultural Critique in the Post-American Century—Travels Through Abya Yala.

Professor Olguín’s research and teaching are grounded in grassroots community service and communal engagement activities across a range of initiatives. These include long-term conviviality and accompaniment praxis in addition to service-learning projects in community centers and schools in underserved communities in the US and abroad, as well as prisons, juvenile jails, and immigrant detention centers. Select publications from these initiatives include: My Time… so listen up!: Young Men of Color Poetry of Empowerment from Cyndi Taylor Krier Juvenile Correctional Treatment Center, San Anto, Tejas (Gemini Ink 2012); ¡Carnales!: Ésta es mi palabra / ¡Ri Wachalal!: Are ri’ ri nuch’ab’al / ¡K’xalile!: A ni olé / Brothers!: This is My Word—Poetry and Illustrations by Immigrant Youth in a Texas Emergency Shelter in Spanish, K’iche’, Mam, and English (Gemini Ink 2012); and Cruzando Fronteras: Poetry and Photography by Migrant Youth in a Texas Immigrant Detention Facility (Gemini Ink, 2010).

Olguín is a member of the Venceremos Brigade, a civilian organization that promotes people-to-people diplomacy through volunteer education and labor activities in Cuba. He also directs conviviality and accompaniment methodology workshops in collaboration with grassroots organizations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Madrid, Spain for students, faculty, and activists who are interested in community-based research, in addition to playwrighting internships with Latinx revolutionary playwrights in Vancouver, Canada for students and community-based artists.

Research Areas

Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x Literary and Cultural Studies
American and Latin American Studies
Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US
Postcolonial, Migration, and Diaspora Studies
Carceral Studies and Anti-Carceral Activism
Community Studies and Organic Intellectual Praxis
Marxism and Materialism Studies
Conviviality and Accompaniment Theory and Praxis
Creative Writing (Poetry, Prose, and Performance)

Current UCSB Affiliations

College of Creative Studies, Literature and Writing Program
Comparative Literature Program
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Department of Theater and Dance
Latin American and Iberian Studies Program
Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
University of California Cuba Academic Initiative
Center on Modernism, Materialism, and Aeshtetics
Creative Writing and Performance
Latinx and Chicanx Studies
Medical Humanities Initiative
Global Latinidades Center
AfroLatinidades Institute