Karma Chávez — “Queer Fields, Queer Methods: Advancing an Activist Research Methodology”

May 23, 2013
4:00 pmto5:00 pm

krchavez1Knight Library
Browsing Room
1501 Kincaid St.
UO campus

Public Lecture: “Queer Fields, Queer Methods: Advancing an Activist Research Methodology”

Given all the critiques of queer theory and queerness that have emerged in recent years, including pronouncements of queer theory’s impending demise, what’s the good in thinking about queer methodologies now? How should those invested in queer approaches and activist research respond to the precarious status of all things queer? In this talk, Chávez will discuss these concerns and others, insisting that there’s never been a better time to do queer activist research in the interpretive social sciences and humanities.

Karma Chávez is an assistant professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research uses queer of color theory, women of color feminism, and rhetorical criticism to engage the relationships between race, class, gender, sexuality, and immigration, with a focus on social movement building, activist rhetoric, coalitional politics, and the rhetorical practices and discursive constitutions of marginalized groups. In addition to her forthcoming book, Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities, Chávez is the co-editor of Standing in the Intersection: Feminist Voices, Feminist Practices in Communication Studies, and co-founder, with Eithne Luibhéid, of the Queer Migration Research Network. Both academic and activist, Chávez also works with various grassroots queer, immigrant, and social justice organizations and collectives.

Colloquium for Graduate Students

Friday, May 24th, 2:00 p.m., Graduate Student Center, Susan Campbell Hall

To participate in the colloquium, please RSVP to Courtney Rath, crath2@uoregon.edu, by Monday, May 20th. Space is limited, and a reading will be provided.