#86 - The Fight for Puerto Rican, Latinx, & Queer Studies

 

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is Professor of American Culture, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and received his BA from Harvard (1991) and his MA and Ph.D. from Columbia (1999). He is author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009), Keywords for Latina/o Studies and of several books of fiction. His most recent book Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2021) is part of the Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance series. Larry performs in drag as Lola von Miramar since 2010, and has appeared in several episodes of the YouTube series Cooking with Drag Queens.  He is the former director of the Latina/o Studies Program at University of Michigan, his grandmother is originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and he goes by Larry.

Today, we will discuss why Latinx/o/a, Puerto Rican, and Xicano Studies, as well as Queer and LGBTQ Studies are key to US culture and society, his futuros projects as author, artist, and activist, and Larry's new appointment (starting in July 2021) as Chair of the Department of American Culture at UofM-and why this is important in the fight to maintain and nurture Ethnic Studies across the USA.

https://lsa.umich.edu/rll/people/faculty/lawrlafo.html

https://lsa.umich.edu/ac/news-events/all-news/search-news/prof--lawrence-la-fountain-stokes-appointed-as-american-culture-.html    

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lawrlafo/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_La_Fountain-Stokes

https://www.press.umich.edu/11314788/translocas (30% discount code: UMS21)

https://www.press.umich.edu/flyers/9780472074273.pdf