"Para que la realidad cambie de bando": Eros and Futurability in the Early Poetry of Cecilia Vicuña

Juan Diego Pérez, Ph.D. Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese

Juan Diego Pérez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, working at the intersections between memory studies, ecopoetics, and decolonial theory, with a focus on Latin-American avant-garde poetry and art. Building on the entanglements between aesthetics and ontology in the emerging field of pluriverse studies, his dissertation traces relational, non-anthropocentric, and liberatory practices of memory in the avant-garde poetics of Chilean poet and artist, Cecilia Vicuña. Originally from Bogotá, he holds a B.A. in Literature and a M.A. in Philosophy from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia). 

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"Arriving at Guigu Bicunisa: Photography in the Afterlives of Pollution in Juchitán, Oaxaca"

Paulina Pineda, Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Literature

Paulina Pineda is a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature, whose research engages with the artistic work of creators from indigenous populations, centering around indigenous language revitalization efforts to approach ecosystem loss, extinction, and the effects of pollution in Mexico. Though her work looks at language revitalization projects widely, she is especially connected to efforts that relate to the language Diidxazá, also known as Zapotec from the Isthmus, and to the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, where the language is spoken. For the past six years she has taught English as a second language in various community centers in California and New Jersey.  

DISCUSSANTS:
Nicole Legnani, Assistant Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Gabriela Nouzeilles, PLAS Director

MODERATOR:
Charlie Hankin, Ph.D. Candidate, Spanish and Portuguese

Photo credit: (Left) Tribu No, No volantes [Non-Flyers],1969, ink on paper
(Right) Paulina Pineda, Guigu Bicu, the river of otters in Juchitán, Oaxaca