Willamette University

English

Roy Pérez

Roy Pérez

Education

  • Ph.D. English, New York University, 2012
  • M.A. English, New York University, 2009
  • B.A. English/Women’s Studies, University of Central Florida, 2004

Courses

  • Introduction to American Ethnic Studies (AES 150)
  • Latin@ Literature and Performance (ENGL 116)
  • Introduction to Literary Theory (ENGL 202)
  • Theories and Methods in American Ethnic Studies (AES 330)
  • Latin@ Countercultures Digital Research Project (ENGL 381)
  • Advanced Theory: States of Anxiety: Race, Sex and National Panic in U.S. Writing (ENGL 458)

Teaching Interests and Philosophy

My courses in the department of English cover U.S. Latin@ cultural history from the colonial encounter to the present, contemporary Latin@ media, Marxist and feminist literary theory, performance studies, and queer cultural studies. I also teach core courses in the American Ethnic Studies program, including an introduction in which we interrogate U.S. racial formation through a set of distinct methodological approaches, and an advanced course in which we apply critical race theories to cultural production such as literature, art, film, and television.

My classes are organized around sociocultural and aesthetic phenomena, often demanding that we move vagrantly through seemingly disparate historical moments and media forms. We will often focus predominantly on countercultural production, including feminist, antiracist, LGBT/queer movements, and the popular or “lowbrow,” as these are often the best sites from which to gain critical perspectives on a historical context or political question. 

My teaching philosophy is modeled after feminist, group-centered pedagogies I’ve learned as a student and activist. In the spirit of both progressive movements and a liberal arts education, I emphasize interrogation and discussion over mastery and passive instruction. Conversations are directed in part by the agenda for the specific course as well as questions and tangents students find compelling or even urgent, given the day’s intellectual goals. Assignments include frequent informal writing tasks, blogging on public sites such as latinacountercultures.com, and formal research projects that students plan and undertake over the course of the semester.

Research

I am currently at work on Queer Mediums: The Cultural Politics of Latin@ Figuration, a book project in which I argue that nonwhite, sexually nonconforming figures in art and literature provide alternative accounts of some of our most important and mainstream moments in ethnic-American culture.  Including authors, painters, dramatists, and television characters ranging from Victorian-era writer Constance Fenimore Woolson to Justin in ABC’s television series Ugly Betty, this project uses queer figures as mediums through which to reimagine the role of the ethnic subject in U.S. art and politics.

Related to this project is a forthcoming article on Chinese-American painter Martin Wong’s queer relationship to the Nuyorican arts movement in downtown Manhattan in the 1970-80s, as well as a second article on disfiguration and latinidad in the theater of Cuban-U.S. playwright María Irene Fornés.

Publications

Articles 

Queer Figments of the Latin@ Imaginary. Book manuscript under review. 

"Proto-Jot@s: Homonarrative Entrapment and the Queer Latina/o Child." Narrative, Race and Ethnicity in the Americas, eds. Jennifer Ho, Jim Donahue, and Shaun Morgan. Forthcoming.

"The Queer Excesses of Martin Wong's Nuyorico." Under review. 
 
“'Make it Clean and You’ll Succeed”: Maria Irene Fornés and Nao Bustamante Disfigure the Subject of Aesthetic Judgment." Under review.


Reference Entries

“Judith Ortiz Cofer.” Library of Hispanic American Biographies. New York: Scholastic, 2007.

“June Jordan.” Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. 326-330.

“Gloria Anzaldúa.” Contemporary American Ethnic Poets. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. 29-32.

“Lorna Dee Cervantes.” Contemporary American Ethnic Poets. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. 59-62.

Poems

"Lessons in Solitude from Men."  Poem of the Week. TheThePoetry.org.

“Things We Both Know (Not Our Real Names).”  FENCE Magazine 14.

“Lucha de gigantes,” “The First Night is the Safest,” and “Once a Year.”  The Best of PANIC!  Ed. Charlie Vázquez. New York, NY: Fireking Press.  2010.