Associate Professor
Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies
University of Waterloo
Waterloo ON N2L 3G1
519-888-4567 x 45621
mario.boido@uwaterloo.ca
University Degrees
- Ph.D. University of Toronto, Canada
- M.A. University of Toronto, Canada
- B.A. University of Calgary, Canada
Research interests
My research explores the intersections of memory, time, and identity in cultural production, with a focus on how the arts—literature, film, and visual culture—participate in the construction of collective memory and in the ethical and political work of representing the past.
My earlier work examined the complex dialogue between word and image in modern and contemporary Latin American culture, investigating how visual and verbal forms of representation interact to produce meaning. This inquiry, which began with my doctoral research and continued in my first book, has evolved into a broader exploration of how narrative and visual media mediate experience and shape our understanding of history and subjectivity.
In my current research, I approach memory through the Phenomenology of the Human Experience of Time (PHET), a model I am developing to describe how consciousness arises from the dynamic integration of recollection, attention, and expectation. The PHET proposes that human consciousness is fundamentally temporal—that we experience ourselves and the world as the unfolding of time made meaningful through memory.
Across these lines of inquiry, my work seeks to articulate how memory functions as both an epistemic and ethical project: an effort to make sense of the past while sustaining the possibility of more inclusive and dignified futures.