Soares' research focuses on the relationship between cultural texts and social justice in Latinx cultures. Specifically, her projects analyze how the literature, music, television, and performance of the Spanish Caribbean and its diaspora contest normative ideas about gender and sexuality. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines literary and performance studies, Soares investigates the tactics adopted by Latinx cultural producers to center queer and femme subjects. Soares' current book manuscript, Salsa Epistemology, traces the presence of joy in Cuban and Puerto Rican diasporic texts from the 1960s to the present. Soares examines the gendered uses of joyful affect in an archive that includes early salsa music, the activism of the Young Lords, television show ¿Qué Pasa U.S.A.?, mourning vigils held after the Pulse nightclub shooting, and the music of contemporary rapper Pitbull. Soares argues for the political work performed by joy in each of these contexts.
keywords
popular culture, puerto rico, latinx, performance studies, queer theory, critical theory
ENGL 3796 - Queer Theory
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Surveys theoretical, critical, and historical writings in the context of lesbian, bisexual, transgender and gay literature. Examines relationships among aesthetic, cultural and political agendas, and literary and visual texts of the 20th century. Same as LGBT 3796.
LGBT 3796 - Queer Theory
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019
Surveys theoretical, critical, and historical writings in the context of lesbian, bisexual, transgender and gay literature. Examines relationships among aesthetic, cultural and political agendas, and literary and visual texts of the 20th century. Same as ENGL 3796.
WGST 2050 - Gender, Sexuality, and Popular Culture
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2019
Explores diverse cultural forms such as film, popular fiction and non-fiction, music videos, public art, websites, blogs and zines which are shaped by, and in turn shape, popular understandings of gender at the intersections of race, class, ability, religion, nation and imperialism.
WGST 2400 - Women of Color and Activism
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019
Studies the history of social activism in the United States by women of color, with an emphasis on modes of social activism, issues that have organized specific communities of color, issues that have crossed ethnic/racial boundaries and the interaction of women from different ethnic/racial groups, including women of color and white women. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2600. Approved for GT-HI1.
WGST 3600 - Latina/x Studies
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018
Drawing from work produced by and about Latinas/xs, discusses the social and cultural construction of race and ethnicity alongside gender and sexuality, the function of nationalism, the politics of migration and citizenship, Latina/x literary production and theory, historiographical trends, Latina feminist theory, activism and the academy, and Latina/x political organizing. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2050 or WGST 2600.
WGST 6290 - Special Topics in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Offers interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on different special topics such as gender and war, gender and globalization, women's social movements, gender and citizenship, gender and collective memory, and cultural representations of gender and sexuality. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Meets the requirements for the WGST certificate.
