Megan Saltzman

Professor Megan Saltzman’s research focuses on contemporary urban culture of Spanish cities with a transnational and ethnographic approach. Her 2024 book, Public Everyday Space: Cultural Politics in Neoliberal Barcelona combines literary and visual arts with ethnographic fieldwork to expose how everyday practices in public space (sitting, playing, street selling) not only challenge the city’s policed image but also serve to carve out autonomy from below. Saltzman has published on urban cultural themes in Spain related to gentrification, spatial in/exclusion, immigration, nostalgia, recycling, urban furniture design, grassroots cultural centers and “artivism.”

Since 2002, Prof. Saltzman has been teaching a wide variety of cultural and literary topics of the Spanish-, Spanglish- and Catalan-speaking world, in addition to Spanish language. Most recently she has been teaching courses that revolve around three themes: (1) urban studies, (2) material and non-human culture, and (3) multicultural identities in the Spanish-speaking world’s expanding geography (Spain, Latin America, Latinx communities in the United States, Asia, and Africa). Her courses are usually cross listed with other majors such as Architectural Studies, Environmental Studies and Critical Social Thought.

Saltzman’s classes typically incorporate both experiential out-of-class activities as well as conversations with people who work within the topics of study but are not academically affiliated (e.g., artists, filmmakers, urban planners). This has proven effective in not only connecting students with lesser-known perspectives and future possibilities but also engaging a wide range of students’ learning abilities.

Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Saltzman worked as an Associate Professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania and an Assistant Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She also held positions at Grinnell College, the University of Michigan and Amherst College.