University of Lausanne presents Giannina Braschi: Return of the Eternal Sardine on December 3rd, 2026
Conférence · Art et littérature
English Department Research Seminar Series, Fall 2026
The English Department of the University of Lausanne (UNIL) has invited Giannina Braschi to speak in its Fall 2026 Research Seminar Series. The Puerto Rican poet and novelist will give a talk titled “Return of the Eternal Sardine” and discuss her latest book, Putinoika (FlowerSong Press, 2024).
The title comes from a scene in Putinoika, Braschi’s satire of power, war and the media, which moves from Greek tragedy to the age of Putin and Trump. Readers of United States of Banana will recognize the sardine as a figure that runs through her work.
Date: Thursday, December 3, 2026
Time: 12:30–14:00 (CET)
Place: Room 5033, Anthropole building, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Organizers: Dr. Patrizia Zanella and Dr. Juliette Vuille, UNIL English Department
About Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi is an iconic Puerto Rican poet, novelist and philosopher. Her books include the postmodern poetry epic El imperio de los sueños (Empire of Dreams, translated by Tess O’Dwyer), the classic Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing!, the philosophical novel United States of Banana, and geopolitical tragicomedy Putinoika. In 2024 the American Studies Association gave her its Angela Y. Davis award for lifetime achievement. PEN America calls Braschi “one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin America” today. The United States Library of Congress calls Braschi’s works “cutting-edge, influential and even revolutionary.”
Also in UNIL’s English Department Lecture Series
Meg Duell (UNIL) opened the series on October 1 with “No Atom Rendered Void: The Aerial and Alchemical Enchantment of Wuthering Heights.” She is a doctoral student and graduate assistant in Modern English Literature at the University of Lausanne, working on English Renaissance drama, Shakespeare, enchantment, environmental humanities, film and adaptation. Her master’s thesis at the University of Geneva studied weather, nature and enchantment in Emily Brontë’s novel.
Christian Ilbury (University of Edinburgh) speaks on November 26 on “Linguistic Context Collapse: Social Media and the Destabilisation of the Speech Community.” He is Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at Edinburgh and studies how digital culture shapes the way people speak, especially among young people and the LGBTQ+ community. His work on accent bias led Edinburgh to become the first UK university to train staff on linguistic discrimination. He is the author of Researching Language and Digital Communication (Routledge, 2025).
Marcel Elias (Yale University) closes the series on December 17 with “Lost Archives and Foreign Critiques: How Arabic Chancery Rhetoric Shaped John Mandeville’s Book” (Room 3174, Anthropole, 16:00–18:00). He is assistant professor of English at Yale and studies the literature of medieval Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. His book English Literature and the Crusades: Anxieties of Holy War, 1291–1453 was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. He grew up in Switzerland.
More information is on the University of Lausanne event page: https://www.unil.ch/events/en/1790857891413
Related reading
- Give Me More Putinas, Por Favor: A Conversation with Giannina Braschi. Sandra Guzmán interviews Braschi about Putinoika for World Literature Today.
- The Return of the Sardine: A Conversation with Giannina Braschi. Video from the 34th European Association for American Studies conference (2022).
- Instagram: [Sardines]
Braschi in Europe, 2026
- Dichiarazioni d’indipendenza nella letteratura americana. The Centro Studi Americani and the University of Macerata’s humanities department hold a conference in Macerata, Italy, on November 18, 2026.
- La scrittrice portoricana. On the Italian edition of Putinoika and Braschi’s meeting with students and faculty at the University of Padua.