CTGS Events
Upcoming Events
Workshop and Reading Group: Universality and the Decolonial University
With Yala Kisukidi, via Zoom (June 2021) as part of Decolonizing Critical Theory
event | journal launch: hacer escuela
APRIL 28th – 3 pm (EST) via Zoom
Register for the event here. The special journal issue for Hacer Escuela is now complete and posted for free download on the Lapes website.
event | Black trans feminism and translatinx citizenship
APRIL 8th – 5:30-7:30 pm (Chicago Time) via Zoom
Readings are available, BUT NOT REQUIRED FOR THE EVENT. For reading materials in advance of the event email Siobhan.LaGro@northwestern.edu
Join us for an event on “Black Trans Feminism and Translatinx Citizenship, April 8th – 5:30-7:30 pm via Zoom supported by Critical Theory in the Global South, a project funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation at Northwestern University, along with the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF).
The event will be presented in Spanish and English through simultaneous translation.
Speaker Bios:
Marcia Ochoa: Marcia Ochoa is Associate Professor of Feminist Studies and Interim Provost of Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ochoa is founding advisory board co-chair of El/La Para Translatinas, a transgender Latina social justice organization in San Francisco’s Mission District. An anthropologist specialized in the ethnography of media, Ochoa is the author of Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela (Duke 2014), and Co-Editor Ex Oficio of GLQ: a Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2014-2020). Their current project, Ungrateful Citizenship, documents the work of El/La Para Translatinas and the terms on which transgender women from Latin America who live in the US and Europe participate in, belong to, and are recognized by society.
Marquis Bey is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and English, and core faculty member of Critical Theory, at Northwestern University. Their work concerns black feminist theorizing, transgender studies, abolition, and critical theory. More specifically, their writing focuses on blackness and transness as paraontological postures, radical subjectivities, nonbinariness, and autotheory. Bey is the author ofBlack Trans Feminism, a monograph forthcoming with Duke University Press in January 2022, and is revising a contracted book entitledCistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender.
Guest Respondent Bio:
Mariano López Seoane is currently the director of the Master’s Program on Gender and Sexuality at UNTREF in Argentina, where he has been teaching since 2013. He also teaches Latin American literature, cultural studies and queer studies at NYU Buenos Aires. After completing a BA in History at the University of Buenos Aires, Mariano moved to NYC to study at NYU, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Latin American Studies from CLACS and a PhD in Latin American Literature from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. He has written mostly on contemporary Latin American literature and arts, with particular interest in the cultures of sexual and gender dissidents in the Americas, Latin American instances of queer studies and queer activism, and figurations of drug culture and drug related violence in Latin American narrative, film and visual arts.
Event Program:
Introduction: Chair – Alejandra Uslenghi (Northwestern University)
Marcia Ochoa (UC Santa Cruz)
Guest Respondent: Mariano López Seoane (UNTREF)Marquis Bey (Northwestern University): 15-20 min
Graduate Student Respondents:For the Introduction: Francisco Carruthers (UNTREF – Program on Gender and Sexuality)
For Chapter 5: Bruna Stamato (UNTREF – Program on Gender and Sexuality)
For the Conclusion: Candice Janelle Merritt (Northwestern University – Department of African American Studies).
Conversation: Marcia Ochoa and Marquis Bey: 20-30min
Discussion/Q&A
EVENTO | "Transfeminismo negro y Ciudadanía Trans - Latinx"
8 de abril - 5: 30-7: 30 pm (hora de Chicago, Estados Unidos) a través de la plataforma Zoom
Para participar se requiere registración previa, por favor regístrese aquí
Las lecturas están disponibles, PERO NO SE REQUIEREN PARA EL EVENTO. Si desea obtener el material de lectura que se discutirá durante el evento, envíe un correo electrónico a: Siobhan.LaGro@northwestern.edu
Les invitamos a participar del evento “Black Trans Feminism and Translatinx Citizenship”- ”Transfeminismo negro y Ciudadanía Trans – Latinx” el día 8 de abril de 5: 30 a 7: 30 pm (hora de Chicago, Estados Unidos) a través de la plataforma Zoom.
El evento es auspiciado por el programa Critical Theory in the Global South de la Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, en una colaboración entre Northwestern University y la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF).
Marcia Ochoa (UC Santa Cruz) y Marquis Bey (Northwestern University) presentarán sus próximos trabajos, como así también, conversarán sobre cuestiones vinculadas al género, la latinidad, la raza y la teoría trans*/queer, poniendo en tensión y en discusión las teorías provenientes del norte y el sur global. Mariano López Seoane (UNTREF) será comentarista invitado.
El evento se presentará en español e inglés a través de servicios de interpretación.
Biografía de les oradores:
Marcia Ochoa es Profesore Asociade de Estudios Feministas y Preboste Interine del Colegio de Oakes en la Universidad de California en Santa Cruz. Es co-fundadore de El/La Para Translatinas, un programa de justicia social de mujeres trans de origen latina en el distrito de la Misión de San Francisco, California. Ochoa es antropóloge especializade en la etnografía de los medios de comunicación, y autor de Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela (Duke 2014) y co-editore ex oficio de GLQ: a Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies (2014-2020). Su actual proyecto Ciudadanía Ingrata documenta el trabajo de EL/La Para Translatinas y los bases fundamentales sobre los cuales las mujeres trans latinoamericanas que viven en EEUU e Europa participan en, pertenecen a y son reconocidas por la sociedad.
Marquis Bey es profesor de Estudios Afroamericanos e Inglés y miembro del comité de Teoría Crítica en Northwestern University. Su trabajo se centra en el cruce del feminismo negro, los estudios trans* y la teoría crítica. Actualmente se encuentra trabajando en su próximo libro Black Trans Feminism que será publicado por Duke University Press en enero del 2022, a su vez, está en proceso de revisión de su libro Cistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender.
Biografía del comentarista invitado:
Mariano López Seoane es director de la Maestría en Estudios y Políticas de Género de la Universidad Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) en Argentina, donde enseña e investiga desde el 2013. Es además profesor de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Teoría Queer en NYU, Buenos Aires. Luego de completar su Licenciatura en Historia en la Universidad de Buenos Aires, se trasladó a NYC para estudiar en NYU, donde obtuvo un Master en American Studies y un PhD en Latin American Literature. Ha publicado ensayos sobre arte contemporáneo, literatura, cine, teatro y políticas culturales. Se especializa en estudios queer y activismo queer en América Latina.
Programa del evento:
Presentación: Alejandra Uslenghi (Northwestern University)
Marcia Ochoa (UC Santa Cruz)
Comentarios de Mariano López Seoane (UNTREF): 5 – 10 min
Marquis Bey (Northwestern University): 15-20 min
Comentarios de estudiantes:
Francisco Carruthers (UNTREF – Program on Gender and Sexuality)
Bruna Stamato (UNTREF – Maestría en Estudios y Políticas de Género)
Candice Janelle Merritt (Northwestern University – Department of African American Studies)
Diálogo: Marcia Ochoa y Marquis Bey
Preguntas y cierre
Workshop and Reading Group: 'Of the extaordinary'
A Roundtable Discussion for the release of Eduardo Sabrovsky’s Modernity as Exception and Miracle
Friday, FEBRUARY 12th, 1pm – 2:30pm CST - Registration Link
With Peter F enves, Eduardo Sabrovsky, Avery Goldman and Javier Burdman as part of Aesthetics and the Critique of Political Theology.
Modernity as Exception and Miracle: Translated from the Spanish De lo extraordinario: Nominalismo y Modernidad, this book argues that a defining aspect of modernity is an ever-increasing pursuit of, and need for, what Eduardo Sabrovsky calls “the extraordinary,” a term that encompasses both the exception and the miraculous. Sabrovsky shows the degree to which Robert Musil’s novel The Man without Qualities functions as a paradoxical paradigm of the extraordinary, and he extends the theoretical insights drawn from Musil’s magisterial work through a series of inquiries into cardinal elements of modern literature, material culture, historiography, physical science, psychoanalysis, and political theory. Sabrovsky demonstrates how the extraordinary condition of modernity emerges from the debates conducted by the last representatives of medieval scholasticism in which nominalism defeated realism, and he resituates the results of this triumph of nominalism in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Georges Bataille, among others.
Past Events
Talk: “Thinking/Feeling Trauma through the Visual in the Age of Digital Reproduction” with Candice Jansen
In culmination of the Critical Theory in the Global South Mellon sub-project on “Trauma, Politics, and the Uses of Memory,” and in the context of the graduate course of the same name during Fall 2020 quarter, Professor Anna Parkinson (Northwestern University) and Dr. Candice Jansen (former Mellon Pre-doctoral Fellow at Northwestern and current Manager of Research and Exhibitions at the Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa will lead a conversation on the role of visual media and capture in memorialization and protest in the context of the Global South (specifically in relation to Chile and South Africa). Those interested in participating in the online session who are not enrolled in the seminar should contact Anna Parkinson by the end of September. Participants will be asked to read a selection of readings (TBA) that will be made available closer to the event’s date. The session will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, October 28th, 2-4pm.
Workshop: Death’s Futurity: The Visual Life of Black Power
With Sampada Aranke and Huey Copeland. Responses by æryka hollis o’neil, Jordan Mulkey, Harrison Graves, and Alex Weheliye, via Zoom (November 2020) as part of Appropriation and Its Discontents
Workshop and Reading Group: Critique of Latin American Reason
Crítica de la razón latinoamericana (Critique of Latin American Reason), by Santiago Castro-Gómez, was published in 1996 and stands as one of the most important philosophical texts to have come out of Latin America in the last twenty–five years. As a critique of the foundational schools of thought in Latin American philosophical and critical history, the author analyzes Latin American modern and postmodern positions on the normative status of modernity, identity, colonial history and heritage, also showing how these have intersected with popular culture. While these themes span the South-American continent, they also implicate broader and protracted global processes — including the legacy of colonialism — that make the book widely relevant and timely. The work underscore the significance of the transition from schools of utopianism and philosophy of history, philosophies of emancipation and liberation, to critical ontologies of the present. As a contribution to contemporary Latin American critical theory, the work is also distinctive for the attention it gives to Mexican thinkers who contributed to the field in the first half of the 20th century. Events via Zoom (October 29 and 30, 2020) as part of Decolonizing Critical Theory.
Visiting Scholar Events: Daniel Link and Mariano López Seoane
Between January 13-17, 2020, Professors Daniel Link and Mariana López Seone of Universidad Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Buenos Aires, Argentina visited Northwestern University for a series of collaborative meetings with faculty and students, organized as one of the concluding events of the 'After Foucault' subproject. This week-long series of events focused upon the subject of 'Critical Concepts on Latin American Queer/Cuir Theory and Literature' and also featured contributions from renowned Latin American author Mario Bellatin. Full details of the events can be found here.
Workshop: "Errant syllabi: Latin american and latinx feminist, cuir/queer, and gender theory"
Over the weekend of October 18-20, 2019, the Critical Theory in the Global South project convened the 'Errant Syllabi' workshop, a series of collaborative meetings organized with the purpose of undertaking innovative critical maneuvers in syllabus production for academic courses taught under the rubric of Latinx and Latin American Gender Theory. The workshop, which took place on Northwestern University's Chicago campus, included the participation of UNAM's Marisa Belausteguigoitia (seen below), Rutgers' Andy Parker, and Northwestern's Penelope Deutscher, as well as several graduate students from each of those institutions. A detail precis of the workshop events and outcomes, written by Northwestern PhD candidate in Philosophy, Carmen De Schryver, can be found here. The workshop schedule can be found here.
Workshop: "Democracy, Critique, and Europe's "Crisis": Black Feminist and Decolonial Trouble"
On August 29, 2019, the Critical Theory in the Global South project hosted a workshop featuring presentations by two visiting scholars, Noémi Michel and Jeanette Ehrmann, who each discussed topics that interrogate the current assumption that European democracy is in critical danger due to challenges associated with the growth of populist, authoritarian, and neoliberal political movements. The workshop included contributions by Northwestern faculty and graduate students.
Workshop: "Eruptions of Memory book Launch"
To celebrate the publication of the new translation of Nelly Richard's Eruptions of Memory, the Critical Theory in the Global South project held a book launch workshop on May 3, 2019, led by the author of the book's Introduction, Professor Graciela Montaldo of Columbia Univeristy. The workshop included the participation of several Northwestern faculty members including subproject leader Anna Parkinson, our Visiting Predoctoral Fellow, Candice Jansen, as well as undergraduate and graduate students from the University.
Workshop: Gabriel Giorgi
On April 26, 2019, NYU Professor Gabriel Giorgi led a workshop for Northwestern faculty and graduate students that focused upon his work exploring the intersections of culture and biopolitics in Latin America through a focus on contemporary literature and film.
Talk: Gabriel Giorgi, "A Democratic Hate: Writing the “Wars of Subjectivity” in Latin America"
On April 25, 2019, Professor Gabriel Giorgi of New York University visited Northwestern as part of the 'After Foucault' project's Biopolitics speaker series. Professor Giorgi delivered a public talk entitled "A Democratic Hate: Writing the “Wars of Subjectivity” in Latin America," which explored the relationship between recent reconfigurations of political subjectivities that have engendered a growth in conservatism in South America and the transformation of writing that has occurred in the wake of new media.
Reading Groups: Discussion of Nelly Richard's Eruptions of Memory
On April 22, 2019 the first of two readings groups organized to facilitate discussion of the English translation of Nelly Richard’s Eruptions of Memory, published as an initiative of the 'Trauma, Politics, and the Uses of Memory' subproject, was held at Northwestern University, with the second reading group scheduled for April 29. These reading groups were arranged in order to stimulate debate of Richard's book amongst Northwestern faculty and students in advance of a book launch workshop that will take place on May 3 and include the participation of the author of the book's Introduction, Professor Graciela Montaldo of Columbia University.
Talk: Gabriela Balcarce, "Resistance and Argentinian Feminism"
On April 16th, 2019, Professor Gabriela Balcarce of the University of Buenos Aires delivered a presentation entitled "Resistance and Argentinian Feminism" for an audience of Northwestern faculty, students, and staff members. Balcarce's talk analyzed of the Feminist movement in Argentina using a biopolitical approach, using the collective Ni Una Menos as an example of what Foucault calls resistance as a practice of subversion that dislocates towards new forms of subjectivation that highlight the creative character of power. To accomplish this, Balcarce considered Judith Revel’s interpretation of Biopolitics and resistance.
Workshop: "Hacer Escuela/Inventing School (Part TWO)"
The second Hacer Escuela/Inventing School workshop took place on March 29-30, 2019, on the Philadelphia campus of West Chester University. Speakers included Tamara Anderson (WE Caucus and Melanated Educators Collective), Floridalma Boj Lopez (California State University, Los Angeles), Angela Crawford (WE Caucus and Melanated Educators Collective), Sandy Grande (Connecticut College), Davíd Morales (Colectivo Zapatista, San Diego), Rónké A. Òké (West Chester University), Flavio Pereira Barbosa (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), Lia Pinheiro Barbosa (Universidade Estadual do Ceará), and K. Wayne Yang (University of California, San Diego).
A detailed program of the workshop can be found here.
Talk: Jorge Sanchez Cruz, "Politics of Illegibility: Aesthetics, Sexual Dissidence, and Mexico"
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Critical Theory, Jorge Sánchez Cruz, gave a talk on Politics of Illegibility: Aesthetics, Sexual Dissidence, and Mexico on March 5, 2019. His talk analyzed two particular historical junctures in Mexican culture, the 1990s and the last decade of the 21st century. Paying attention to aesthetic productions as symptoms of a national crisis, his talk reflected on political possibilities that emerged from subcultural fields and disempowered subjectivities.
Talk: Victor Vich, “Performances medioambientales en el Perú contemporáneo”
On January 17th, 2019, Professor Victor Vich of the Pontificia Universidad Catholica del Peru delivered a public talk that discussed recent environmental transformations in his home country that are impacting the very definitions of categories such as 'nature' and 'culture,' while simultaneously bringing about new representations of collective life capable of re-imagining and constructing new ways of inhabiting the world.
WORKSHOP: “DECOLONIZING CRITICAL THEORY, Decolonial aesthetics and epistemic violence”
The 'Decolonizing Critical Theory' workshop took place at Northwestern University between November 30, 2018 and December 3, 2018, facilitating a public dialogue between scholars of critical theory and decolonial thought from across the US, South Africa, France, and the Caribbean. The workshop focused on the theory and pedagogy of projects engaged in the decolonization of critical theory, through a focus on contributions from scholars including Yala Kisukidi (Université Paris VIII), Walter Mignolo (Duke), Premesh Lalu (University of the Western Cape), Axelle Karera (Wesleyan), Pedro DiPietro (Syracuse), Maria Acosta Lopez (DePaul), Samera Esmier (UC Berkeley), Juan Obarrio (Johns Hopkins), Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers), Rocio Zambrana (Oregon), Sampada Aranke (SAIC), Kyoo Lee (CUNY), and Alia Al-Saji (McGill).
The project included the participation of Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Jorge Sánchez Cruz, who will develop syllabi for new courses related to the workshop's theme, to be offered at Northwestern in 2019-2020 through cooperation with departments and programs including Latin American Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Spanish and Portuguese, and Gender and Sexuality Studies.
A copy of the workshop schedule can be accessed here.
A gallery of photos taken at the workshop can be found here.
Contact faculty:
Penelope Deutscher (Philosophy, Northwestern)
WORKSHOP: "CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND PERSPECTIVES ON GENDER"
From November 19-23, 2018, scholars from UNAM, Northwestern University, and Rutgers University gathered in Mexico City for a workshop on the topic of critical and decolonial pedagogy, especially as it relates to issues of feminism and gender. Two questions that guided the week included: How is a critical/decolonial classroom/university constructed? How is a critical/decolonial curriculum constructed? In seeking out answers to these questions, scholars actively observed how teaching must accommodate everyday violence in precarious contexts such as the prison and public universities during times of civil unrest (particularly in México regarding the contemporary tragedy of mass violent disappearances of young women). Activities focused on the role of the body and the role of art, two pedagogical resources often under-utilized in less precarious settings. In preparation for the week, scholars read a number of texts on critical pedagogy, and were asked to engage with contemporary issues of violence in México through other readings and videos.
Participants joined in several planned activities. Perhaps most notable, they attended Santa Martha Catitla, an all-women’s prison outside of Mexico City, in order to learn about “Mujeres en Espiral: sistema de justiciar, perspectiva de género y pedagogías en resistencia” (Women in Spiral: The Justice System, Perspectives of Gender, and Pedagogies of Resistance), a project led by Marisa Belausteguigoitia of UNAM. The project centers on visual art as an ineliminable pedagogical method within precarious learning settings such as prison. Other activities included: a workshop entitled “Dissidence, the body, and critical thinking” in which scholars were asked to explore movement and dance as critical pedagogy, a special symposium from Marisa’s undergraduate students who paired theory with their own experiences of violence in México, and a seminar on curriculum from the global south. At the end of the week, scholars developed ideas for further collaboration, such as jointly generating syllabi, translation projects, and applying insights gained from the week into their own classrooms, and/or into non-academic contexts they might be involved with.
Workshop: "Hacer Escuela/Inventing School (Part one)"
The first Hacer Escuela/Inventing School workshop took place from April 13-14 at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus. The conference included talks by Walter Kohan, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, and Doris Sommer. Marisa Belausteguigoitia attended the workshop, along with three members of Colectivo las Penélopes, a UNAM-based feminist collective. Click here for the conference website.
Walter Omar Kohan (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro and NEFI) at Hacer Escuela/Inventing School
Melissa Rosario (Center for Embodied Pedagogy and Action, Puerto Rico)