Arkaitz Ibarretxe Diego is a PhD candidate in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures at the University of Illinois and is originally from Bilbao, Spain. He is a graduate student in the Spanish and Portuguese Department, where he earned an MA in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures in 2017. His research examines the role of rurality in the construction of political and national identities in contemporary Spanish literature, documentaries, and digital media. His work is strongly influenced by Ecocriticism and Affect Theory. Arkaitz has been involved with the Unit since 2017, his response to Dipesh Chakrabarty’s Author’s Roundtable can be found in Kritik.

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