Assistant Professor at the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Scranton
About
Dr. Curiel is an assistant professor at the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Scranton. As an interdisciplinary scholar, her work analyzes representations of bodies that challenge normative notions of citizenship, gender, and race in Mexico, Central America, and the Latinx diaspora in the U.S. She earned her BA (2012) from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and her PhD (2016) in Peninsular and Mexican Literature and Cultures from the University of California, Riverside. She was a visiting professor at Pepperdine University (2016-2018) and an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2020) in Mexican Literature and Cultural Production at Williams College.
Current Work:
Roxana is currently working on a monograph entitled Machorras: Embodying Identity Against Mexicanidad, in which she explores the trajectory of the narratives of mestizaje and Mexican masculinity within the construction of a patriarchal nation-state throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and the ways these narratives have been challenged by bodies that do not fit the patriarchal norms of nationhood. Engaging in a queer curatorial practice, she examines photographs from the Mexican revolution (1910), representations of Black and Indigenous femme bodies, films, lucha libre shows, anti-police protests, and drag king interventions—informed by her collaborative performances as Fausto. This book project offers a broader understanding of masculinities and the anti-Blackness engrained in the mestizaje narrative. Her other projects encompass pedagogies for language-minoritized students, racialized communities, abolition as a transnational project, and migrations across the Americas.
Research Area Keyword(s):
recialization; femicides; masculinities; drag; abolition
