Luis Duno-Gottberg is a Venezuelan academic and professor at Rice University, where he holds the Lee Hage Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies.^[1] His research focuses on Caribbean and Latin American culture, visual culture, race, and political violence.^[2] Duno-Gottberg has authored and edited works on modern slavery in the Americas, mestizaje in Cuba, and the cultural representations of disasters and incarceration in Latin America.^[3]

Duno-Gottberg was born in Venezuela to Estela Gottberg, a neuroscientist, and Pedro Duno, a philosopher. In 1994, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, graduating summa cum laude.^[4]

He later attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a Master's degree in Latin American Literature in 1996.^[1] He also completed a Doctoral Certificate in Cultural Studies. In 2000, he earned his Ph.D. in Latin American Literature at the University of Pittsburgh.^{[citation needed]}

Duno-Gottberg's academic career includes teaching and administrative roles in Venezuela and the United States.^[5] He has served as a juror for several literary and professional competitions, including the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Venezuelan Section Prize (2011), the Rómulo Gallegos International Literary Prize in Venezuela (2013),^[6][7][8] the José Donoso International Literary Prize in Chile (2022),^[9] and the LASA Fernando Coronil Prize for Venezuelan Studies (2022).^[10]

He also co-curated the exhibition "La Furia del Viento" at the Fototeca de Cuba, which featured over 120 years of photography documenting earthquakes and hurricanes.^[11][12][13]

After completing his Ph.D., Duno-Gottberg returned to Venezuela to join the faculty at Universidad Simón Bolívar.^[14] He taught there from 2000 to 2003, where his courses focused on Latin American literature and cultural theory. In 2003, Duno-Gottberg accepted a position at Florida Atlantic University, where he served as Associate Professor and Director of Caribbean and Latin American Studies.^[15] He also chaired the Comparative Literature program before leaving the university in 2008.^[16]

Duno-Gottberg joined Rice University in 2008 and was promoted to full professor in 2019.^[17][18] He served as Department Chair of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies from 2016 to 2020.^[19] His administrative roles at Rice include serving as the founding Magister of Duncan College (2009–2015)^[20] and Magister of Baker College (2017–2023).^[21] In 2025, he was appointed the founding Magister of Chao College.^[22][23]

• Albert Camus, Naturaleza: Patria y Exilio^[24]
• Solventar las diferencias: La ideología del mestizaje en Cuba (2003)^[25]
• La humanidad como mercancía: Introducción a la esclavitud en América y el Caribe (2014)^[26]

• Carceral Communities: Troubling Prison Worlds in 21st Century Latin America (2021)^[27]
• La derecha como autoritarismo en el siglo XXI (2020)^[28].
• The Films of Arturo Ripstein: The Sinister Gaze of the World (2019)^[29]
• La politica encarnada. Biopolítica y Cultura en la Venezuela Bolivariana (2015)^[30][31]
• Haiti and the Americas (2013)^[32]
• Submerged. Sumergido. Alternative Cuban Cinema (2013)^[33]
• Miradas al margen. Cine y subalternidad en América Latina (2008)^[34]
• Imagen y Subalternidad. El cine de Víctor Gaviria (2003)^[35]

• Transaction & Transition: Photographing Change in Contemporary Cuba (2016)^[36]
• Geografías del miedo en el cine venezolano contemporáneo (2011)^[37]

In 2010, the Venezuelan Studies Section of the LASA awarded Duno-Gottberg the Best Paper in the Humanities award.^[38][39] He received an “Honorary Mention” for best research article from the same organization in 2012. Additionally, he was a recipient of the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching at Rice University in 2015 and 2017.^[40]

• Official website
• Rice University profile