Juana María Rodríguez - A Lover’s Discourse. Fragments of a Sexual Life

Written as a deconstructed memoir centered on autotheoretical reflections on the erotic, this presentation engages the tropes of queer quotidian practices that constitute a sexual life. As it traffics in the voyeuristic pleasures offered by a glimpse into the erotic life of another, it probes changing sexual cultures across a lifespan.

Juana María Rodríguez (she/her/ella) is a cultural critic, public speaker, and award-winning author who writes about sexual cultures, racial politics, and the many tangled expressions of Latina identity. She is the author of Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex (Duke UP 2023); Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings (NYU Press 2014); and Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces (NYU Press, 2003) and served as a co-editor of the special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly on “Trans Studies en las Americas.” Her research focuses on aesthetics and sexual labor; racialized sexuality and gender; affect and activism; embodiment and technology; and the politics of kink. A recipient of The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies’ prestigious Kessler Award in 2023, Rodríguez is a Professor in Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley.

This public lecture is organised in the context of the Duke University - Leuphana University Gender, Queer and Transgender Studies Workshop for Doctoral Candidates. It is hosted by the Center for Critical Studies (CCS), the Gender and Diversity Research Network, and the DFG Cultures of Critique research training group.