Soares' research focuses on the relationship between media 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 media/performance studies, literary studies, and oral history, Soares investigates the tactics adopted by Latinx cultural producers to center queer and femme subjects. Soares' 2023 book manuscript--Playful Protest: The Political Work of Joy in Latinx Media (University of Illinois Press)--examines the use of joy in Cuban and Puerto Rican diasporic cultural production from the 1960s to the present, to argue that while it is often disregarded as frivolous and apolitical, joy can be central to sociopolitical critique. Soares’ archive ranges from early salsa music, to the activism of the Young Lords, to rapper Pitbull.
keywords
popular culture, puerto rico, latinx, performance studies, queer theory, critical theory
ENGL 3796 - Queer Theory
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2022
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 / Spring 2020 / Fall 2022
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 / Summer 2024
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 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2022 / Fall 2023
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 3620 - Women of Color and Activism
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2023 / Fall 2024
Surveys 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, and issues that have crossed ethnic/racial boundaries. In order to offer students a historical understanding of how Women of Color have been marginalized, as well as how they have fought back against this marginalization, this course relies upon historical, sociological, and theoretical readings. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2020 or WGST 2050 or WGST 2600.
WGST 3702 - Topics in U.S. Gender and Sexuality Studies (SS)
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021 / Spring 2022
Examines selected topics in women, gender and sexuality in the social sciences, from a U.S. perspective. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours for different topics. Recommended prerequisite: WGST 2000 or WGST 2600.
WGST 3930 - Women and Gender Studies Internship
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Provides field experience in local and national government and non-governmental agencies focusing on women and gender-related issues. Supervision by approved field instructors. Students must relate their academic experience to their field work experience though a portfolio and a final paper. Department enforced prerequisite: 6 hours of course work in Women and Gender Studies and 30 cumulative credit hours.
WGST 4800 - Senior Colloquium in Feminist Studies
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
Provides students with the opportunity to actively reflect on their education and to complete a research project that incorporates an interdisciplinary and feminist approach to the study of gender, class, race, ethnicity and sexuality. Offered each spring.
WGST 4999 - Senior Honors Thesis
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
Qualified Women and Gender Studies majors may write an honors thesis, an in-depth research paper, on a topic of choice. Thesis hours available to majors only after successfully completing the research phase.
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.
WGST 6796 - Queer Theories
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Explores key concepts and debates in the field of queer theory with an interdisciplinary focus on crosscutting issues (aesthetic, cultural, legal, medical, political and social) that shape queer subjectivities, practices and relations.
