George Albert Azcarate

George Azcárate is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. He earned his RN from St. Margaret School of Nursing (2009), a BSN from Chatham University (2010), an MA in Iberian and Latin American Studies from the University of Notre Dame (2019), and a PhD in Spanish from the University of Notre Dame (2025). His research and teaching interests explore the healer/patient relationship and how the patient’s body is transformed into a book that the healer not only reads in search of signs and symptoms, but also writes and edits. He is interested in biopolitics, bioethics, and the emergence of the modern hospital as a political instrument for the governance and nurturing of life and health. He is also drawn to the darker side of biopolitics: the abandonment, exclusion, and even suppression of life as a modern expression of political power. He is a registered nurse with extensive experience in the Intensive Care Unit. His current project investigates the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.