Book Talk: "Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda"

Please join us when we welcome Deborah R. Vargas, associate professor in the department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside.  Her first book, Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda (University of Minnesota Press, 2012) draws on Chicana feminisms and queer of color analysis to examine the ways in which Chicana singers push the heteronormative limits of what Vargas refers to as the "sonic imaginaries of borderlands music."  She is the recipient of numerous fellowships awarded by the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institute, the University of California Office of the President, and the University of California Center for New Racial Studies.  Her current book project explores questions pertaining to racialized genders and sexualities, sociality, nation, and citizenship in spaces ranging from nineteenth century fandangos to twentieth century bailes de negocio and attire such as guayaberas. She has conducted oral histories with Eva Ybarra, Rosita Fernandez, and Lydia Mendoza for the Smithsonian Institute's Latino Music Oral History Project and most recently authored the text for the Lydia Mendoza US Postal Service commemorate stamp due for release in May 2013.  Her publications have appeared in Feminist Studies; Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory; Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies; and the edited collection Latina/o Sexualities:  Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies.

This event is FREE.