Professor and Chair of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
BA: English. Grand Valley State University
MA: Comparative Literature. Purdue University
PhD: Comparative Literature. Washington University-St. Louis.
Dr. Reitsma’s research and teaching focus on gender, sexuality, race and (im)migration in film and literature in Spanish and English. Dr. Reitsma teaches Spanish, Latin American Studies, Sociology, and Honors at Canisius University, and has taught graduate courses at Universidad IberoAmericana Puebla and the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw. Dr. Reitsma directs study abroad programs in Cuba and Mexico. Current projects include an examination of Buffalo industry and slavery in Cuba, another on LGBTQIA+ issues in Cuba, and a work on Immigration/Deportation in Mexico.
He researches gender and minority representation in literature and film of the Latine diaspora, and Latin America. He also works on issues of immigration and is the founder and director of the Borders & Migrations Initiative at Canisius. Recent publications include “A Queer Romance, Queering the National Romance: LatinX Narratives of Belonging from The Squatter and the Don to Red, White, and Royal Blue” for the Polish Journal for American Studies and another recent article on the LGBTQ movement in Santa Clara, Cuba as a model for intersectionality in the face of crisis in an anthology of queer theory published in Mexico.
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Listen to Dr. Reitsma Discuss Diversity on the Magis Podcast
Publications
“De Santa Clara, Cuba para el Mundo: el poder del Centro Cultural El Mejunje de transformar a la gente solitaria en gente solidaria.” Rodríguez Sánchez, Nathaly (editor). Senderos de los Estudios Feministas del Género en América Latina (Pathways in Feminist Studies of Gender in Latin America). Puebla: Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla. 2024. 234-250. (ISBN: 978-607-8587-89-6). An exploration of the history, development, and philosophy of the first LGBTQIA+ center in Cuba as a model for community engagement and integration, published in a first-of-its-kind anthology on LGBTQIA+/Feminist Studies.
“A Queer Romance: Queering the National Romance: LatinX Narratives of Belonging from The Squatter and the Don to Red, White, and Royal Blue.” Polish Journal for American Studies. Special Issue: Latinx Stories in the 21st Century. Ed. Dr.Ewa Antoszek. (Vol. 18) 2024. 103-210.
“Ni tolerancia ni aceptación: hacia una pedagogía de celebración, integración e inclusión.” March 2024. Carta de AUSJAL Número 55: Humanismo, Inteligencia y Tecnología. 12-15.
“Migrantopias: Teaching the Dystopian/Utopian Narratives of Migration through a Pedagogy of Hope” in Utopian Imaginings: Saving the Future in the Present. SUNY Press. Edited by Victoria W. Wolcott. March 2024. 201-213. This article is available as a PDF download via Academia.edu here.
“Teaching Spanish Conversation Through the UAPs: A Pedagogy of Jesuit Values and Mission.” Jesuit Higher Education. Vol. 11. No. 1. Article 7. Spring 2022.
“Embracing Diversity Through Mission and Identity at Canisius University” AJCUNET October 2021.
“Going Beyond Tolerance and Acceptance.” Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education. No. 59. Spring 2021. 18-19.
Interviewing While LBGTQ: The Questions and Issues You Should Think About on the Academic Job Market.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 61.30 6 April 2015. (11pages) http://chronicle.com/article/Interviewing-While-LGBTQ/229123/#disqus_th…
“Literature, Gay Men’s.” International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, Eds. Patricia Whelehan and Anne Bolin. Malden, Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. 2015. 700-705.
World Film Locations: Havana: Ed. Ann Marie Stock. Bristol, UK : Intellect Books. 2014: 3 Mini Essays:
- “The Last Days of the Victim/Los últimos días de la victima.” 66-67.
- “Before Night Falls/Antes que anochezca.” 70-71.
- “Honey for Oshun/Miel para Oshun.” 72-73.
“Queer (In)Tolerance in Children’s Animated Film.” Queer Love in Film and Television, Critical Essays. Eds. Pamela Demory and Christopher Pullen. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2013. 129-138.
“Quo vadis, queer vato? Queer and Loathing in Latino Cinema.” LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media. Ed. Chris Pullen. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 231-241.
Forthcoming
“We Carry the Border with Us: Queer Immigration, Border Crossings, and Culinary Identity in I Carry You with Me” (in the Polish journal Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature)
- The Empathy Machine of Julio Anta’s Frontera: A YA Graphic Novel of the Border (in the Spanish journal Camino Real).