Dr. Valentina López Liendo

Valentina López Liendo completed her PhD at the Heidelberg Centre for American Studies as part of the DFG Research Training Group Authority and Trust. Her first book Colson Whitehead Beyond the Novel (Routledge, 2026), based on her dissertation analyses Colson Whitehead’s literary career as a case study of contemporary US authorship. The book examines Whitehead's positionality within the literary field, as well as the reception and canonisation of his works. Valentina previously studied English Studies, Transcultural Studies and East Asian Studies (specialising in Japanese Studies) at Universität Heidelberg and in Osaka. Until 2018, she worked as a freelance language tutor for English, Spanish and German, and from 2019 to 2020 she served as coordinator of the Bachelor’s programme at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies.

Valentina López Liendo is currently working on her second book on discourses of home and belonging in contemporary US literature and culture, tentatively titled Negotiations of Home and Belonging in U.S. Literature. Her work focuses on their circulation and renegotiation, e.g. via references to and recontextualisation of language, (sub)cultures, genres and discourses on identity. Further research interests include Book Studies and U.S. popular culture.

• Contemporary American Literature and Popular Culture

• Sociology of Literature and Culture