News Release| David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture; Cal State L.A.

April 26, 2013

Performance studies professor talks about the Latino/a migrant experience

2013 Kubal Lecture at Cal State L.A. Tuesday, May 14

Los Angeles, CA – José E. Muñoz , chair of performance studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, will present “Burning Brown” at this year’s David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture at Cal State L.A.

Muñoz will call upon the history of experimental performance to theorize an expansive sense of “brown worlds” (Latino/a migrant experience) that are crafted and enacted through cultural production. With a reference to José Rodríguez Soltero’s infamous performance piece LBJMuñoz will explore how one “brown happening” might burn across the decades and continents.

The lecture, which is free to public, will take place Tuesday, May 14, 6:15 p.m., in the University-Student Union, Los Angeles Room, on the CSULA campus.

Professor Muñoz' research focuses on comparative ethnic studies, queer theory, and performance art. He has published two books: Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (University of Minnesota Press, 1999) and Cruising Utopia: The Politics and Performance of Queer Futurity (NYU Press, 2009). His latest book, Feeling Brown: Ethnicity, Affect and Performance, is forthcoming. He has also edited or co-edited six other books, and published many book chapters and articles.

He holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Duke University. 

Honoring the late David L. Kubal, a member of the Cal State L.A. English Department faculty from 1968 to 1981, the lecture series brings distinguished writers, scholars and critics to the CSULA campus. Past lecturers included Renaissance scholar Arthur F. Kinney, cognitive scientist and linguist Mark Turner, literary theorist J. Hillis Miller, culture critic Geoffrey Hartman, and literary editor Adolf Wood. For more about the David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture Series at Cal State L.A., go to /academic/english/dkubal.php

What & Who:  The 31st Annual David L. Kubal Memorial Lecture Series at Cal State L.A. will present Burning Brown by José E. Muñoz, chair of performance studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

When:  Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 6:15 – 8 p.m. (A reception will follow immediately after the lecture.)

Where:  Los Angeles Room, University-Student Union, on the CSULA campus. The University is located at the Eastern Avenue exit, San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway, at the interchange of 10 and 710 Freeways. Public permit dispenser parking is available in Lot 5 or upper level Parking Structure C.

Info:  Free to the public. For more information, call the CSULA English Department at (323) 343-4140.

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