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A Conference on the Work of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa

Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa — poet, philosopher, and critical scholar — founded, wrote, and encouraged a transformative body of writing and scholarship, with generative influences on critical race, feminist, queer, and decolonizing ways of knowing. Importantly for UCSC, Anzaldúa was a vital presence on our campus for over twenty years, and her legacy is a profound part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the campus.

The UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies is proud to initiate a celebration of the intellectual legacy of Gloria Anzaldúa. This year-long celebration includes a series of undergraduate workshops and creative writing seminars, advanced study seminars for graduate students and faculty, performances by artists and poets as part of the creative writing Living Writers’ reading series, and an installation of Anzaldúa’s writing altar from her archives in McHenry Library’s Special Collections. Finally, our celebration will culminate in a two-day (April 10-11, 2015) scholarly conference: The Feminist Architecture of Gloria E. Anzaldúa: New Translations, Crossings, and Pedagogies in Anzaldúan Thought.

Conference Description

Beginning with her co-editorship of This Bridge Called My Back: Writing by Radical Women of Color (1981) to the foundational Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) to the anthologies Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras (1990) and This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation (2002), the collection of engagements in Interviews/Entrevistas (2000), The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader (2009) and her children’s books, the work of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa has greatly influenced critical race, feminist, queer and decolonizing theories of an active subjectivity and agency. Her worldview as intellectual, lesbian of color, poet, teacher privileges the knowledge that comes from experiencing life in-between spaces—the border dweller, the queer, the colored, and the mestiza. Embracing ambiguity, liminality and border thinking, Anzaldúa affirms life from within these spaces. Her call for women of color, particularly lesbians of color, to write, engage and interrogate the world, challenges the hegemony of knowledge production and categorical logic. The movement of U.S. third world feminists that Anzaldúa initiates centers coalitional politics and intersectional analysis of the lived experiences of women of color, yet there continues to be a problem of legibility, a misrecognition and appropriation of the theoretical contributions of these writers (Perez, 2010). I believe that it is the issue of legibility that deflects scholars’ attention from engaging Anzaldúan thought in the critical ways that it deserves.

This will be a 2 day conference, April 10-11, to think together about the work of Gloria Anzaldúa with scholars who are engaging purposefully, where discussions will center around these questions:

● How do the efforts of the El Mundo Zurdo conference, new archival material and translations invite us to participate and connect in new ways the living heart of Anzaldúa’s work?
● How have scholars engaged/translated Anzaldúan theory into pedagogical practices, either through alternative methodologies or epistemologies?
● How is Anzaldúa’s work engaged with current theories of the post-human, settler colonialism, or decolonial thinking?
● What provocations can we take from Anzaldúa’s work?
● How do we move Anzaldúa 1.0 to Anzaldúa 2.0?

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Conference Schedule

FRIDAY

Location: Humanities 1 Room 210

3:00pm Welcome
Bettina Aptheker and Karen Yamashita, UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race & Ethnic Studies
Felicity Amaya Schaeffer and Cindy Cruz, Conference Co-Chairs
Alma Sifuentes, Dean of Students, UCSC

3:15-4:30pm Keynote: Laura Perez, UC Berkeley

4:30-6:15pm Panel 1: Un Travesía/A Crossing: Thinking Anzaldúa across the Disciplines

Karen Barad, UCSC
Gaye Theresa Johnson, UCSB
Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, UCSC
Sonia Saldivar-Hull, University of Texas San Antonio
Pedro DiPietro, Syracuse University

Moderators: Jennifer Gonzales, UCSC / Cat Ramirez, UCSC

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SATURDAY

Location: Humanities Lecture Hall

9:30-10:00am Coffee and Refreshments

10:00-12:00pm Panel 2: La Facultad: Bridging Theory to Praxis in Anzaldúan Thought

Pat Zavella, UCSC
Aida Hurtado, UCSB
Sofia Villenas, Cornell University
Alejandra Elenes, Arizona State University

Moderator: Marcia Ochoa, Chair of Feminist Studies, UCSC

12:00-1:00pm Lunch

1:00-2:45pm Panel 3: Roundtable – Santa Cruz Feminist of Color Collective

Sandra Alvarez, Chapman University
Pascha Bueno Hansen, University of Delaware
Susy Zepeda, UC Davis
Roya Rastegar, Los Angeles, Filmmaker

Moderator: Cindy Cruz, UCSC

2:45-3:00pm Break

3:00-4:30pm Keynote Conversation: Maria Lugones, Binghamton University

Moderators: Rosa-Linda Fregoso, UCSC / Bettina Apthekar, UCSC

 

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Directions & Parking:

Park near the Humanities Complex (Cowell/Stevenson parking lots 107, 108, 109, and 110). Parking attendants will be available at the beginning of the event to sell permits. Otherwise, permits can be purchased at pay stations in lots.

Click here for directions and map 

 

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Special Exhibit of Anzaldúa Artifacts:

McHenry Library Special Collections will display the artifacts of the Anzaldúa Writing Altar in the Library California Room on April 9-10 from 10am-12pm & 1pm-4pm.

 

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Join the Conversation:

Facebook
#ihrevents

 

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Articles:

http://news.ucsc.edu/2015/04/Anzaldua-feminist-conference.html

http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2015/04/14/anzalduan-thought-transcends-borderlands/

 

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Event Photos:

Friday, March 10

 

Saturday, March 11

 

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Event Podcast:

 

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Event Video:

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Sponsors:

UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Office of the Dean of Students, Graduate Student Association, El Centro: The Chicano Latino Resource Center, Chicano Latino Research Center, Latin American & Latino Studies, Cowell College Provost, College 8, Stevenson College, Literature Department, Feminist Studies Department, Politics Department, Anthropology Department, and the Institute for Humanities Research.

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UC Santa Cruz Celebrating 50 Years of Being Truly Original

This is a place like no other. It was imagined from the minds of original thinkers—the rebels and visionaries, artists, scientists, and poets who had the courage to strike off on a different path in search of ideas that question norms in hopes of making the world a better place. Let’s celebrate 50 amazing years. Visit 50years.ucsc.edu and see what we are planning.

 

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