Professor in the Departments of American Culture, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan
About
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is a professor in the Departments of American Culture, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan and the former director of the Latina/o Studies Program (2011-2016). He teaches courses on Puerto Rican, Hispanic Caribbean, and US Latina/o studies; queer of color studies; women's, gender, and sexuality studies; and theater and performance. He received a PhD in Spanish from Columbia University (1999), an MA in Spanish (also from Columbia, 1992), and a BA in Hispanic studies from Harvard College (1991).
Current Work:
Tropical Precarity: Contemporary Performance in Puerto Rico focuses on the ways contemporary alternative and experimental Puerto Rican performers address domestic violence and violence against women and queer and trans persons, neoliberalism, colonialism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-disability bias, misogyny, and poverty in Puerto Rico and in the diaspora in a context of precarity caused by the longstanding financial crisis and by natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and pandemics. La Fountain-Stokes analyzes the work of performance artists, musicians, and theater and multimedia directors in Puerto Rico and the diaspora such as Aravind Enrique Adyanthaya, Eduardo Alegría, Mickey Negrón, Gisela Rosario (“Macha Colón”), and Awilda Rodríguez Lora (“La Performera”), in the framework of queer geography and performance studies, addressing how they create community and survive in adverse conditions.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Performance, culture, sexuality, Puerto Rico, Diaspora
