Luz Santa Maria

Doctoral Research: A qualitative study into the online literary socialisation practices of adolescents (Funded by the Chilean Agency for Research and Development ANID)

With the continual embedding of the Internet in people’s everyday lives, we face new reading and writing practices, which have a strong social nature and shape new and fluid literacy identities and roles (Alvermann & Hinchman, 2012). Understanding the dynamic relationship of youth with the digital has enormous implications for literary education in its endeavour to connect formal learning to vernacular practices. In this setting, the research aim is to explore why, how and where literature is in youth’s everyday lives and what role the digital plays in these embedded practices. The research aims at observing youth’s reading and writing online practices and co-producing subjective, situated and socio-technical meaning on the socialisation of literature in digital landscapes. Participants of this study are based in Chile, Spain and Belgium, and the qualitative methodologies include interpretative phenomenological analysis and digital ethnography. The theoretical framework tackles new materialities, affect theory, mediated identities, actor-network theory and geographies of youth.  

Previous research: 

Children and Youth Libraries’ Audiences: Successful Learning Strategies of Engagement and Retention (Funded by Chilean Commission for Research, Science and Technology CONICYT)

This research examined the literature on engaging young audiences to visit libraries, museums and performing arts shows and strategies for developing permanent audiences. The recommendations drawn from the review served as input for developing the Latin American Interactive Library for Children and Youth (BILIJ). Ideas regarding programs, partnerships, communication and promotion of libraries in the context of the 21st century are explained following an audience approach that emphasises the ‘presentness’ of children and youth, the demands and motivation of cultural participants, and the need to enable cultural rights. 

2.     An exploration into literary value in young adult fiction (Funded by Chilean Commission for Research, Science and Technology CONICYT)

While attempting to describe, discuss and reflect on the current field of young adult literature, this research explores the notion of aesthetic value from a pedagogical and literary perspective. The discussion draws on analysing five young adult narrative books published between 2005 and 2014 in English and Spanish. The research reflects on aesthetic value and reader engagement in the field of young adult literature, which has experienced significant growth over the last three decades.

3.     The favela of Rio de Janeiro: a space of exclusion. An analysis of Paulo Lins’ novel City of God and Patricia Melo’s Inferno

This research analyses two Brazilian novels, City of God, by Paulo Lins, and Inferno, by Patricia Melo. From the perspective of Luhmann’s social systems theory, the research delves into the urban transformations of Rio de Janeiro, including political, geographic, economic, and social aspects. Moreover, the study examines the narratives’ maintenance of the social exclusion’s logic, which produces the favela and simultaneously is enhanced by this space. 

Publications: 

Santa María, L., Aliagas, C. & Rutten, K. (2022). Youth’s literary socialisation practices online: a systematic review of research. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 34, 1-16. 10.1016/j.lcsi.2022.100628

Santa María Muxica, L. (2018). Learning strategies for engagement and retention of young audiences. IFLA Journal, 44(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0340035218793156

Santa María, L. (2018). Clashes of Modernity in Two Chilean Contemporary Young Adult Novels. Al sur de la Alameda: Diario de una toma and Nieve Negra. Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, 56(4), 31-37. 10.1353/bkb.2018.0063

Santa María Muxica, L. (2011). La favela como espacio de exclusión social en la ciudad de Rio de Janeiro. EURE. Revista latinoamericana de estudios urbano regionales, 37(110), 117-132. 10.4067/S0250-71612011000100005