Coatepec, Veracruz, México

Dr. Willis completed his A.B. at the College of William and Mary, including a semester at the Universidad de las Américas in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. He received his M.A. (1992) and Ph.D. (1996) from the University of Virginia. He assumed his first faculty appointment at the University of South Alabama. In 2002 he began work at the University of Tulsa, and in 2006 he became Associate Professor of Spanish. He has traveled in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Dominican Republic.

Dr. Willis currently teaches Spanish American literatures and cultures (in Spanish) and Brazilian literature and culture (in English). His general research interests encompass Latin American  literatures, languages and cultures. His published materials include the monograph Aesthetics of Equilibrium: The Vanguard Poetics of Vicente Huidobro and Mário de Andrade; articles in Brasil/Brazil, Chasqui, Gestos, Hispania, Hispanic Issues On Line, Hispanófila, Luso-Brazilian Review, and South Atlantic Review; edited chapters, translations, and creative writing. Presently he is researching representations of the body in early twentieth-century Latin American literature.