Prof. Ribas holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature (Harvard University, 2007). His work focuses on contemporary fiction and film in Spanish, mostly from mid-20th Century to present. More recently he has become interested in psychoactive plants and their medicinal, religious, and recreational use in contemporary Latin America and Spain. He has written scholarly works on the representation of financial issues in literature and film in Spain and Latin America. He has also worked on Spectral Studies, dealing with hauntings, disappearance, absence, and invisibility in Latin American narrative.
His most recent work, "Luces y sombras del renacimiento psicodélico" was published with Ulises Ediciones in Spain. He is presently working in the collection "Otras iluminaciones: Narraciones y cultura a la pluz de los psicodélicos", co-edited with Ana Luengo (San Francisco State U). He has co-edited, with Amanda L. Petersen (U. of San Diego) the collection of academic essays "Espectros: Ghost Hauntings and the Talking Dead in Transhispanic Narratives" (Bucknell University Press, 2016) and a special issue entitled "Spectral Mexico" in the open-access scholarly journal "iMex. Interdisciplinary Mexico"(2019). He has published extensively in selective peer reviewed journals scholarship on contemporary Latin American film as well as the literary work of authors from Latin America and Spain (e.g. Marta Sanz, Rafael Chirbes, Sergio Ramírez, Carlos Fuentes, Heriberto Yépez). Additionally, Prof. Ribas has been involved in educational projects, such as the writing of a Hispanic culture textbook for secondary school students with De Agostini (Italy), and the production of digital instructional materials for the textbook "Plazas" (Cengage, Inc.).
- 20th and 21st century Latin American narrative, with an emphasis in Mexico
- Psychoactive plants in Latin American and Spanish-speaking cultures
- Finance, debt, and money in literature and film
- Spectrality and ghosts in literature and film
- SPAN 101M: Narratives of Migration
- SPAN 107: Writing Workshop
- SPAN 146: Latin American Documentary
- SPAN 147: Cinema, Politics, and Society in Latin America
- SPAN 139: Ghosts and the Talking Dead in Latin American Narrative
- SPAN 137: Introduction to Latin American Culture; SPAN 107 Advanced Writing Workshop
• "Luces y sombras del renacimiento psicodélico". Ulises Ediciones, 2023.
• Editor. México espectral. Special issue of _iMex. Interdisciplinary Mexico_ 15 (2019)
• “Transnational Finance on the Road to the Andes.” Human Rights, Social Movements, and Activism in Contemporary Latin American Cinema. Eds. Antônio M. da Silva and Mariana Cunha. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan (2018): 183-207.
• “Un negocio de mierda: El ensueño monoproductivo en El baño del Papa de César Charlone y Enrique Fernández.” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 21 (2017): 75-94.
• “Tales of the Brick Age. Corruption and Bankruptcy in the Late Works of Rafael Chirbes.” Symplokē. 25.1-2 (2017): 405-17.
• “El tirano indigente: Pedro Páramo, deuda y necropolítica.” A contracorriente. 14.3 (Spring 2017): 59-85.
• “Theories of the Ghost in a Transhispanic Context.” Espectros: Ghost Hauntings and the Talking Dead in Transhispanic Narratives. Ed. Alberto Ribas-Casasayas and Amanda L. Petersen. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2017.
• “Mil y una muertes de Sergio Ramírez: Los fantasmas de la articulación nacional nicaragüense.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. 48.3 (Oct. 2014): 493-517.