Dr. Andres Arroyave is a Spanish Instructor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. He earned his Ph.D. in Spanish in May 2026, bringing over a decade of university teaching experience to the classroom. As the son of Colombian immigrants, his personal connection to his cultural heritage directly informs his approach to teaching. In his advanced courses, he incorporates Latin American cinema, podcasts, and contemporary media to sharpen students' conversational fluency while exposing them to pivotal cultural, social, and historical perspectives they might not otherwise encounter.

His scholarship focuses on 21st-century Latin American narratives specializing in contemporary Colombian literature, urban literature, and themes of transpolitical violence and social trauma. His doctoral dissertation investigates the portrayal of internal evil, psychological terror, and systemic trauma in contemporary Bogotá through the lens of the Latin American Neogothic. Focusing on Mario Mendoza’s trilogy—Satanás (2002), Diario del fin del mundo (2018), and Akelarre (2019)—his research demonstrates how Neogothic frameworks articulate deep-seated societal despair, transpolitical violence, and gender-based trauma in response to Colombia’s recent history.

Beyond his teaching and research, he serves as co-host for Take on the South en Español, a podcast produced in collaboration with the Institute for Southern Studies that brings scholarly discussions on Southern and Hispanic culture to a broader audience.