Valentina López Liendo is a postdoctoral researcher in the DFG funded Collaborative Research Center "Home(s)" (SFB 1671). She earned her PhD in American Literature at Heidelberg University as part of the Research Training Group “Authority and Trust”. Valentina majored in English Studies and East Asian Studies at Osaka and Heidelberg Universities, before earning an M.A. in English and Transcultural studies. Her current work examines negotiations and moral topographies of belonging in contemporary U.S. literature, with a particular interest in their socio-institutional context.