LatinX Studies, Europe, and the Global South

Join our friends at Duke for “LatinX Studies, Europe, and the Global South.” 
 
Taking the Global South as a cardinal direction, conceptual geography, and epistemological framework, this gathering explores the new global whereabouts, multiple genealogies of thought, and flows of LatinX Studies. What are the field’s multiple sources and heuristic theories, its Southern starting points, everyday practices and manifestations, and its antecedents, trajectories, and present histories, alongside its affinities and innovations. Who––and where––are the new assemblages and interlocutors of a fugacious and widening LatinX Studies? 

These are some of the critical points of departure that will be examined, as we crisscross U.S. borders and boundaries, sound off ideas, and map LatinX Studies’ dispersals, imaginings, and transitions. Our theoretically-oriented contributions will form a meaningful parallel with LatinX interlocutors across the Atlantic. We will consider the United States and Spain as entangled empires, with long-lasting histories that have engendered LatinXness and LatinX cultures and identities. 

One venue, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), has pointed out that Spain currently houses Europe’s largest and most important Latino/a/e/X community, while headlines regularly announce that Madrid has become more “Hispanic American.” Madrid is now regarded as an unofficial capital of Latin America, or the “Miami of Europe”––alongside Miami and New York. 

By thinking through interdependent configurations of LatinX Studies and its dislocations in a fun and supportive environment, our forum will concentrate on the circulations, interactions, and connections of contemporary LatinX identifications. The one-day event strives to forge relevant and promising propositions for the demands of twenty-first century global LatinX Studies.

Speakers:
 
​María DeGuzmán  is Eugene H. Falk Distinguished Professor of English & Comparative Literature and Founding Director of the UNC Latina/o Studies Program at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has published three scholarly books: Spain’s Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo-American Empire (Minnesota Press, 2005); Buenas Noches, American Culture: Latina/o Aesthetics of Night (Indiana University Press, 2012); and Understanding John Rechy (University of South Carolina Press, 2019) as well as many articles and essays on LatinX lived experiences and cultural productions, most recently with an emphasis on environmentalisms and environmental justice. She is also a conceptual photographer, creative writer, and music composer​.
 
Ben V. Olguín is the Robert and Lisa Erickson Presidential Chair in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara​​. His latest book is Violentologies: Violence, Identity, and Ideology in Latina/o Literature​ (Oxford University Press, 2020).​
 
Raquel Vega-Durán, Faculty Chair of Ethnicity, Migration, Rights; and Senior Lecturer in Peninsular and Transatlantic Film and Literature at Harvard University. Vega-Durán is the author of Emigrant Dreams, Immigrant Borders: Migrants, Transnational Encounters, and Identity in Spain (Bucknell University Press, 2016).On Migration. 
 
Dagmary Olívar Graterol is editor of El Otrx: arte, cultura y migración en la ciudad de Madrid (La Parcera Edita, 2022) and La comunidad dominicana en España: de una aproximación histórica a perspectivas de futuro (INDEX- Madrid, 2019)​, among other publications​. She’s a Venezuelan cultural researcher tracking Caribbean and Latin American migrations in Spain. Olívar Graterol has been living in Spain since 2002 and holds a Ph.D. from Carlos III University of Madrid. She’s a founding member of the YoSoyElOtro Cultural Association and its current president. 
 
Gad Yola is a Peruvian singer, activist​,​ and drag artist living in Spain.​