Expertise

Mexican Cultural Studies, Mexican Studies, Theater Studies, Performance Studies, Sound Studies, Ethnomusicology, Latinx, Latin America, Human Rights, Queer Theory

Biography

As a scholar-practitioner, my research focuses on performative acts of dissidence and resistance across contemporary Latin/x American geographies. With a particular emphasis on 21st century Mexico, my work explores how theatre and performance genres create opportunities for non-normative citizens to express socio-political critiques and reimagine definitions of belonging. My book, Sonic Strategies: Performing Mexico's War on Drugs, Mourning, and Feminicide (Vanderbilt University Press, 2023) examines performances in times of crises and particularly, the way artists engage and leverage the sonic realm as a means of expressing the realities of Mexico since 2006. My articles have appeared in Romance Notes, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, and Latin American Theatre Review, among others. Since 2019, I have served as the Associate Editor of Karpa: Dissident Theatricalities, Visual Arts and Cultures. I earned my Ph.D. in Contemporary Latin American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015, and prior to joining Temple University, I was Assistant Professor at the University of Dayton and Visiting Assistant Professor at William & Mary.

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications

• Sonic Strategies: Performing Mexico’s War on Drugs, Mourning, and Feminicide. Vanderbilt University Press, 2023.
• 2023 “Selena Quintanilla Memorial Sites: Enacting Communitas of Belonging and Commemoration in Corpus Christi, Texas.” Aztlan. Forthcoming Spring 2024.
• 2023 “Performing Trans “Monstrosity” and Non-binary Bodies in Cuentos de la Tumbona (2021) by Mariano Ruiz.” The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre: Further Readings on the Aesthetics of Disqualification. eds. Analola Santana and Michael Chemers. Routledge. Forthcoming.
• 2023 “Affective Acoustic Territories: Mapping and Performing Disappearance in Zona clausurada (2022) by Teatro Línea de Sombra.” Hispanic Review. Accepted for publication on March 22, 2023. Forthcoming Fall 2024/Spring 2025.
• 2023 “Reality TV, Poverty Porn, and ‘The Money Shot’: Performing Female Incarceration in Los caballeros las prefieren presas by Minerva Valenzuela.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 57.1 (Spring 2023): 3-28.
• 2020 “Santiago-Orlando: Performances of Queer Vulnerability and Futurity in the Work of (Me llamo) Sebastián.” Chasqui 49.1 (Spring 2020): 202-221.
• 2020 “Soundtrack of an (After) Life: Transfemicide, Mourning, and Pop Music in La Prietty Guoman by César Enríquez.” Latin American Theatre Review 53.2 (Spring 2020): 5-31.

Courses Taught

• SPAN 2002: Hispanic Readings
• SPAN 2222: Salsa, Samba, Selena
• SPAN 3204: Latin America Through Film
• SPAN 4240: Hispanic Pop Culture
• SPAN 8000: Aural Acts: Performance in the Americas
• SPAN 8149: Latin/x American Theatre & Performance
• LAS 2514: Historical Continuity and Social Change