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Christina Baker

Christina Baker in a white sweater with a black shirt with her arms crossed smiling and staring into the camera

Christina Baker

  • College of Liberal Arts

    • Spanish and Portuguese

      • Associate Professor

        Programs

        • Latin American Studies

        Concentrations

        • Latin American & Latinx Theatre & Performance

      • Director

        Programs

        • Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT)

Expertise

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

Biography

Starting Fall 2025, I am the Director of the Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT) and joining Theatre Journal as Co-Editor. 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.  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

Book

Peer-reviewed Publications 

  • “Performing Trans “Monstrosity” and Non-binary Bodies in Cuentos de la Tumbona (2021) by Mariano Ruiz.” The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre, eds. Analola Santana and Michael Chemers. Routledge, 2024. 68-81.
  • “Affective Acoustic Territories: Mapping and Performing Disappearance in Zona clausurada (2022) by Teatro Línea de Sombra.” Hispanic Review. 92.3 (Summer 2024): 427-452. https://doi.org/10.1353/hir.2024.a948077
  • “Selena Quintanilla Memorial Sites: Enactments of Altered Temporality, Pedagogies of Postmemory, and Queer Latinx Love.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 49.1 (Spring 2024): 99-128. https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.2024.49.1.101
  • “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. 10.1353/rvs.2023.a901497
  • “Santiago-Orlando: Performances of Queer Vulnerability and Futurity in the Work of (Me llamo) Sebastián.” Chasqui 49.1 (Spring 2020): 202-221. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27120845
  • “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. 10.1353/ltr.2020.0012

Courses Taught

  • SPAN 1003: Intermediate Spanish
  • SPAN 2002: Hispanic Readings 
  • SPAN 2096: Composition
  • SPAN 2222: Salsa, Samba, Selena 
  • LAS 2514: Historical Continuity & Social Change (LASS Program Spring 2023)
  • SPAN 3096: Advanced Analysis and Writing Skills 
  • SPAN 3204: Latin America Through Film 
  • SPAN 4162: Hispanic Nobel Laureates 
  • SPAN 4240: Hispanic Popular Culture
  • SPAN 8000: Aural Acts: Performances of Resistance and Dissidence in the Americas 
  • SPAN 8000: Representing Trauma: Performative Acts in Latin/x America
  • SPAN 8149: Spanish American Theatre