Mónica Lopez Lerma

Spanish Department
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd.
Portland, OR 97202

Office: Vollum 217
Email: monlopez@reed.edu

About

Mónica López Lerma is Associate Professor of Spanish and Humanities. She received a PhD in Comparative Literature and a Graduate Certificate in Film Studies from the University of Michigan. She also holds a Law degree from the University of Valencia (Spain) and a LL.M. in Jurisprudence from the European Academy of Legal Theory (Belgium). At Reed she teaches a variety of interdisciplinary courses in film theory, political documentaries, law and violence, justice and the senses, and cinema and human rights. She has also taught both graduate seminars and undergraduate courses at the Faculty of Law of the University of Helsinki, the Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia, and the School of International Relations of the Kyrgyz State National University. 

Mónica’s research interests include contemporary Spanish film and literature, with particular emphasis on film theory, gender, aesthetics, politics, memory, and law and humanities. She is the author of Sensing Justice through Contemporary Spanish Cinema: Aesthetics, Politics, Law (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) and the co-editor of Rancière and Law (Routledge, 2018).  She is currently working on a new book project tentatively titled Documentaries Against the Law: Evidence, Affect, and Reflexivity and editing a book entitled Espacios y límites de la (in)justicia en la España contemporánea. 

From 2012 to 2017, Mónica was editor-in-chief of No-Foundations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and currently is a member of its editorial board. She also serves on the Executive Committee on 20th and 21st Century Spanish and Iberian Languages, Literatures and Cultures (2019-2024). 

Mónica’s research has been funded by numerous fellowships, such as the Finnish Cultural Foundation Grant, the Jean Monnet Graduate Fellowship, and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Research Fellowship.

Education

PhD, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, 2010
Graduate Certificate in Film Studies, Department of Film, Television and Media, University of Michigan, 2009
D.E.A. in Law, Department of Moral and Political Philosophy of Law, University of Valencia, 2004
LL.M. in Jurisprudence, European Academy of Legal Theory, 2000
Erasmus Student, Law School, University of Orleans, 1996-1997
Licenciate in Law, University of Valencia, 1997

Lopez-Lerma CV 2022