Catherine (Catie) Prechtel has a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University, with a focus in gender and sexuality studies and cultural studies in Latin America. Catie graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and Anthropology from Pacific University in Oregon in 2014. While at Pacific University, she co-taught poetry classes for Spanish-speaking immigrant women with the nonprofit Adelante Mujeres. Upon graduating, she continued to develop her teaching skills as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in León, Guanajuato, Mexico, from 2014-2015, and worked as an English teacher in the city from 2015-2016. In 2018 she completed her Master’s degree in Spanish & Latin American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C.. As an undergraduate, her research focused on the formation of understandings of virginity among Mexican-American populations, and as an MA student, she explored the changing significance of the figure of La Catrina in the works of Mexican artists José Guadalupe Posada and Diego Rivera. For her PhD dissertation, she explored how Mexican exótico wrestlers perform gender and sexual identities within lucha libre. During the 2021-2022 academic year she conducted her research as a visiting investigator affiliated with the CIEG (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios de Género) at UNAM in Mexico City.
