As a student of the 19th century in Latin America, Yamile Ferreira is particularly interested in how the nation-building process in the continent intertwined ideas of modernity and civilization with discourses of racial hierarchy, “mestizaje,” and national identity. She pays special attention to how intellectual women contributed to creating spaces for the democratization of education and culture, and fostered spaces for inter-class and inter-race socialization beyond national borders. In the past, she has also researched the performance and activism of a feminist Bolivian organization, Mujeres creando, analyzing the way that Latin American feminists have contested legacies of patriarchal colonialism and imperialism from alliances between indigenous, feminine, and queer social identities.