Katryn Evinson, Assistant Professor

Katryn Evinson is a scholar of modern and contemporary Iberian visual culture and literature. Her research examines the intersections of art and literature with capitalism, drawing on political theory, cultural theory, and political economy to analyze Spain’s role in global cultural and economic dynamics.

Her first book-length project, Sabotage: The Destructive Making of the Creative Economy in Neoliberal Europe, examines the resurgence of sabotage in Spain from the democratic transition through the long aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Rather than framing artistic sabotage as a purely aesthetic tradition—from the avant-garde to institutional critique—the book situates it within broader historical processes that enabled its return. These include the European Union’s deployment of the contemporary art world to advance the financialization of the economy through tourism and real estate. The book argues that Spain became a testing ground for the European Union’s shift from an industrial to a post-industrial model that promoted culture and creativity as economic drivers. Ultimately, it shows how sabotage, long a symbol of worker struggle, resurfaced in art to contest Spain’s neoliberal restructuring—specifically, the use of culture itself to promote and perpetuate neoliberalism.

In addition to her publications on Spanish cultural and political history, feminism, and environmental issues, she serves on the board of the Asociación de Literatura y Cine Español Siglo XXI (ALCESXXI), co-directs The Communal Hypothesis Research Group, is a research member of the Spanish government-funded project Rhythms of Feminized Labor in Spanish Visual Culture (1936-2022), and is on the advisory board of Revista Re-visiones.

Before coming to Duke, Katryn was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for the Core Curriculum at Columbia University, where she taught Contemporary Civilization. Her research has been supported by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Public Humanities Grant, Cornell’s Society for the Humanities, and the Fisher Center for Gender and Justice at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. 

Contact Info:

Office Location:
Office Phone:	(919) 660-3101
Email Address:
Web Pages:	http://alcesxxi.org http://communalhypothesis.org

Teaching (Spring 2026):

• ROMST 178CNS.01, MUSEUMS AND COLONIALITY Synopsis

  Social Sciences 109, MW 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

  (also cross-listed as ARTHIST 178CNS.01, LIT 178CNS.01)

Education:

Ph.D.

Columbia University

2023

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Moreno-Caballud, L; Evinson, K, In exchange for magic: Betraying the commons in Spanish neoliberalism (1979-2021), Hispanofila, vol. 203 no. 1 (March, 2025), pp. 161-175, Project MUSE [doi]  [abs]
2. Evinson, K, Better Alone? Capitalist Primitivism and the Antisocial Turn in the Contemporary Iberian Rural Novel, Mln Modern Language Notes, vol. 140 no. 2 (March, 2025), pp. 447-473, Project MUSE [doi]  [abs]
3. Evinson, K, Arte y sabotaje: el problema del trabajo artístico y la alienación en la obra de Karmelo Bermejo, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, vol. 25 no. 3 (January, 2024), pp. 397-414 [doi]
4. Evinson, K, Luz Broto’s Abrir un agujero permanente (2015): The Cultural Logic of Anti-Institutional Aesthetics, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, vol. 7 no. 1 (January, 2023), pp. 103-129 [doi]  [abs]
5. Evinson, K, Review of Another Aesthetics is Possible, by Jennifer Ponce de León, Chasqui, vol. 51 no. 2 (2022), Revista de Literatura Latinoamericana