Cathy Thomas

“Defining the Fête: The Utopian Potential of Drag, Disease and Diaspora in Oonya Kempadoo’s Carnival Imaginary”

The catharsis associated with Caribbean Carnivale has always been situated in the body. This paper considers the fête bodies of a transnational costume designer, the Queen of the Band and a gay reveler living with AIDS in Oonya Kempadoo’s tragicomic novel All Decent Animals as allegorical and political sites for producing and produced by trauma.

Friday Forum Spring 2016 Schedule

Fridays, 12:30 – 2:00pm
Humanities 1, Room 202

A weekly interdisciplinary colloquium series for sharing graduate research across the humanities. Join us for light refreshments and weekly presentations by your fellow graduate students.

April 8th- Andrew Woods, Politics
April 15th- Claudia Lopez, Sociology
April 22nd- Jordan Reznick, HAVC
April 29th- Erin McElroy- Feminist Studies
May 6th- Raul Tadle- Economics
May 13th- Cathy Thomas, Literature
May 20th- Trung Nguyen, History of Consciousness
May 27th- Rebecca Ora, Film of Digital Media
June 3rd- Veronica Zablotsky, Feminist Studies