Campus Neues Palais
building 2, room 1.14
University of Potsdam
Am Neuen Palais 10
14469 Potsdam
My second book project tentatively called “White Men Saving the Queens? Decolonizing Queer Theory”, takes queer art and theorizing as “cosmologies” that simultaneously emerge in different “poleis” around the world both within the Anglosphere and beyond. As cosmopolitanisms in “minor mode”, locally embedded queer artists, theorists and activists not only carry with them planetary visions but also have for a long time transculturally conversed. The project emphasizes on the actual plurality of “queer cosmopolitanisms”, exemplified by the artistico-theoretical practices and political tactics embedded in Severo Sarduy’s painted words, Cui Zi’en’s film piracy and Pedro Lemebel’s bastard crónicas. By reconsidering, decolonizing, and queering the dominant notion of queer theory as a strictly western (especially US) enterprise, the project learns to learn from these artists/theorists whose “queer cosmopolitanisms” from different localities, in different languages, genres, and media with a commitment to transcultural justice, are not to be studied as cases to be added to “queer theory”. Rather their theories-in-action provide invaluable contributions not only to queer theory but also methodologically to decolonizing cosmo-political articulations and actions that go beyond pure theorization and the written word.
I received my cotutelle PhD in Comparative Literature (summa cum laude) from Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany and Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, France, with the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate: Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones. My research intersects feminisms and queer theories, literary and visual studies in their decolonial variants in Spanish, English, Chinese, French, and Nahuatl. I have a strong commitment to the decolonization of knowledge through transregional, tranhistorical, transdisciplinary and translingual dialogue, learning and experimentation. My research has been generously supported by the European Commission (Erasmus Mundus Joint Master, Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate and the FP7-People), the DFG and the ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry.
My publications have appeared in scholarly, artistic, and journalistic milieu on topics such as camp, darkroom, (de)coloniality, translation, Nahuatl, fashion, Pedro Almodóvar, and the toilet. My first book Queer Ancient Ways, a decolonial/queer critique of modern/colonial reception of Babylonian and Aztec/Nahua creation myths, is forthcoming with punctum books. I am co-editor of the special issue on Hyperimage of 新美术: Jounral of the National Academy of Art (vol.39, No.2, 2018) and I am co-editing a special issue The Ontology of the Couple for GLQ – A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies.
I was the chief curator of the Minor Cosmopolitan Weekend event, 6-8 December 2018, organized by the RTG Minor Cosmopolitanisms in collaboration with the HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Monographs
Articles in Research Journals and Edited Volumes
Invited Contributions
Journal Special Issues
Book Reviews
Other Output
Public Lectures
Keynote Speeches, Guest Lectures
Invited Talks
Curated and Convened Events
Conference Papers
As Discussant