Tufts University presents a talk by Leticia Alvarado, Assistant Professor in the Department of American Studies at Brown University, on the topic “From Abject Performances to Aesthetics in Relation.” Alvarado’ s interdisciplinary research is situated at the nexus of Latina/o/x, visual culture, and gender and sexuality studies. Her first book, “Abject Performances: Aesthetic Strategies in Latino Cultural Production” (Duke University Press, 2018), draws out the irreverent, disruptive aesthetic strategies used by Latino artists and cultural producers who shun standards of respectability, centering negative affect to capture experiences that lie at the edge of mainstream Latino-centered social justice struggles since the 1960s.

Building on her first book, this talk will juxtapose the aesthetic forms of Kenyan-born artist Wangechi Mutu and Dominican born artist Firelei Baez toward theorizing relational black and brown aesthetics.

Cosponsored by the Tufts Department of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies; the Toupin Bolwell Fund in the School of Arts & Sciences; the Consortium of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora; Art History, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies program; the Women’s Center and LGBT Center; and Tufts University Art Galleries