Elena Cardona

Elena Cardona

Faculty - Undergraduate
Headshot of Elena Cardona
Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish Language and Culture
Email
ecardona@soka.edu
Phone
949-269-5603

Elena Cardona earned her PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of California, Riverside, and a MS in Literary Studies from the Central University of Venezuela. Her areas of specialization include memory and migration studies, visual semiotics, philosophy, and art-based critical pedagogies. Her research and teaching interest focused on Ibero and Latino American contemporary Cultures. In her teaching and research endeavors, seamlessly integrated her studies in Literature and Cultural Studies with subsequent training as a photographer. An award-winning essayist and poet, her publications include two books on literature and visual culture. She has given several workshops and talks on memory and migration and the intersections between research and creative processes. She is also independent curator. Dr. Cardona is currently working on a book manuscript titled Desolvidar. This book proposes a situated philosophy of memory, which is a critical and aesthetic analysis of the recent Venezuelan migratory crisis.

  • PhD Spanish - Hispanic Studies University of California, Riverside
  • Photography Diploma, Andrés Bello Catholic University/CiEF, Caracas, Venezuela
  • MS. Literary Studies, Central University of Venezuela
  • BA. Letters - Language and Literature, Central University of Venezuela
  • First-year of Spanish II
  • Second-year of Spanish I
  • Intermediate Conversation
  • Advanced Conversation
  • Reading & Writing
  • Advanced Grammar
  • Cultural History of Spain
  • Cultural History of Latin America
  • Film & Literature in Spanish
  • Learning Cluster
    • Latin American Diaspora & Human Rights in Miami
    • Migrant Memories: SoCal through Photography
  • Iberian, Latino/a & Latin American literature and culture
  • Memory and Migration Studies
  • Photography, Poetry, Performance
  • Archives, Transmedia and Digital Humanities
  • Art Based Pedagogies
  • Creative Writing

Books and Book Chapter

  • Cardona, Elena. "Casas de desolvido. Cronotopos diaspóricos en la obra de tres fotógrafas venezolanas." In Mujer, voz y representación en fotografía y materiales visuales en el mundo hispanohablante, 165-199. Edited by Edurne Beltrán de Heredia. Argus-a, 2025.
  • Rosario Acosta López, Maria del, and Elena Cardona. Inauditas: Tracing the Sound of Migrant Memories in Venezuelan Women Photographers. 2023.
  • Cardona, Elena, Judit R. Palencia Gutiérrez, Gwendolen Pare, and Isabella Vergara. "Performance in the wake | Cuerpas ante lo político. An introduction." Edited by Elena Cardona, Judit R. Palencia Gutiérrez, Gwendolen Pare, and Isabella Vergara. Liminalities, 2022.
  • Cardona, Elena. Entremiradas : Visualidad E Imaginario CinematográFico En La Narrativa Venezolana de La Modernidad. Caracas: Academia Venezolana de la Lengua, 2009.
  • Cardona, Elena. Dramaturgias Del Mal : Conrad Y Coppola. Caracas: Fundación Cinemateca Nacional, 2007. (Full-text available through ILL) 

Articles

Creative

  • Cardona, Elena. Canto, Borde, Delirios. In Poesía migrante. Paula Cucurella (Edit). Doblea Editores 2025
  • Cardona, Elena. Selección de textos. Non finito. Baciyelmo. Vol 4, September-March 2023, p. 174-181.
  • Cardona, Elena. Cover and Images. Diacritics, vol. 49 no. 2, 2021, p. 172-145. Project MUSE
  • Cardona, Elena. Terredad. Revista Casapaís. La primera noción del exilio. December 2-2021.
  • Cardona, Elena. Paper Will Bear Anything. Even Fragmented Memories? Wall text for the exhibition Fragmented Memories by Juan Herrera. The Artist Coop. Long Beach, California. August 2024.
  • Cardona, Elena. Los amores rumorean. Wall text and poems for the photography exhibition LAR by Wendy Estrella Yannarella. Curated by Ricardo Jiménez. August 2023. Roberto Mata Taller de Fotografía. Hacienda la Trinidad, Caracas, Venezuela.
  • Cardona, Elena. [ O de Obliteración: membrana que sutura y anida]. C19.Fanzine. #6. June 2022.
  • Cardona, Elena. Mínima cartografía in Dossier Rafael Castillo Zapata. Papel Literario. El Nacional. May 5, 2018.
  • Cardona, Elena. Other Topographies o deformar el paisaje. Catálogo Expositores IV Salón de proyectos fotográficos Espacio GAF. Mérida, Venezuela. September 30, 2016.
  • Cardona, Elena. Other Topographies o deformar el paisaje. Catálogo 1era Muestra Colectiva Incubadora Visual 2016. Los Galpones Art Center, Caracas, August 24, 2016.
  • Cardona, Elena. Selección de poemas. Literales. Tal Cual. June 23, 2012.
  • Cardona, Elena. Para-triangular. Las Malas Juntas. N. 25. May 24, 2012.
  • Cardona, Elena. Fuegos Reflejos (selected poems). Babel. No 56. 2010.
  • Cardona, Elena. El Señor Rogelio López. Tipógrafo de oficio. Puntal. X, N° 14. September 2004.
  • Assistant Teaching Professor of Spanish Language and Culture, Soka University of America
  • Visiting Assistant Professor of Language and Culture program, Soka University of America
  • Teaching Assistant, Hispanic Studies Department, University of California, Riverside
  • Academic Coordinator, Photography Studies and Research Center, Caracas-Venezuela
  • Writing coordinator, School of Letters, College of Humanities, Central University of Venezuela
  • Lecturer, School of Letters, College of Humanities,Central University of Venezuela
  • 2025 The Nieves Family Foundation Travel Grant 
    Luis & Linda Nieves Family Foundation 
    Soka University of America 
    Field-based experiential learning for the Latin American Diaspora & Human Rights in Miami, FL
  • 2024-2025 Chancellor’s Grant for Addressing Bias and Bigotry 
    University of California, Riverside
  • 2022-2023 Dissertation Year Program Award 
    Graduate Division - University of California Riverside
  • 2022 Hispanic Studies Summer Research Grant 
    Project: (un)Oblivion. Interviews and Testimonies of Venezuelan Migrant Women Artists
  • 2022 Ibero-American Institute Estancia de Investigación Berlin Award
  • 2021-22 UCHRI's Engaging Humanities Grant 
    University of California Humanities Research Institute