E47: Alienizing Logics and Coalitional Politics (w/ Dr. Karma R. Chávez)

On today’s show, Alex and Calvin have the distinct privilege of speaking with Dr. Karma R. Chávez, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Mexican American & Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Karma is a scholar whose work runs the gamut from border rhetorics and pandemic discourses, to coalition-building and intersectionality. We begin by discussing Karma’s 2013 book Queer Migration Politics, considering how the issues of immigration and queer liberation have intersected rhetorically, in particular as a coalitional response to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Then, Karma explains her critical views on how scholars engage with embodiment, and we brainstorm new possibilities for studying the nuances and particularities of hegemonic bodies. Finally, Karma shares her experiences visiting the West Bank of Palestine, as well as her time recording interviews about the Palestine/Israel conflict for her public radio show in Madison, Wisconsin, all of which is documented in her 2019 book Palestine on the Air. We unpack how academic freedom functions as a problematic ideograph in conversations about this issue, and close by considering intersections between struggles for Palestinians’ and immigrants’ rights.

Karma Chávez publications referenced in this episode:

Chávez, K. R. (2013). Queer migration politics: Activist rhetoric and coalitional possibilities. University of Illinois Press.

Chávez, K. R. (2018). The Body: An Abstract and Actual Rhetorical Concept. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 48(3), 242-250.

Chavez, K. R., & Ezra, M. (2019). Palestine on the Air. University of Illinois Press.

Luibheid, E., Chavez, K.R., Brown, A.J., Capo, J., Carastathis, A., & Caraves, J. (2020). Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation. (1 ed.). Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Additional references:

American Studies Association Resolution Endorsing BDS

Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso books.

Brooks, M. P., & Houck, D. W. (Eds.). (2011). The speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To tell it like it is. Univ. Press of Mississippi.

Chávez, K. R. (2015). The precariousness of homonationalism: The queer agency of terrorism in post-9/11 rhetoric. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, 2(3), 32-58. [Discusses “Barney Frank’s role as congressman, his position as only the second openly gay person to serve in the U.S. Congress, and I offer some history of the 1990 Immigration Act and Frank’s role in both its construction and in its passing,” p. 35.]

Edelman, L. (2004). No future: Queer theory and the death drive. Duke University Press.

Habermas, J.. (1991). The structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society. MIT press. [Canonical work of public sphere theory.]

Kaplan, S. (2015). “University of Illinois censured after professor loses job over tweets critical of Israel.” Washington Post. [Discusses the academic freedom case of Steven Salaita.]

King, T. L. (2019). The Black shoals: Offshore formations of Black and Native studies. Duke University Press.

Luibhéid, E. (2002). Entry denied: Controlling sexuality at the border. U of Minnesota Press.

Muñoz, J. E. (1999). Disidentifications: Queers of color and the performance of politics (Vol. 2). U of Minnesota Press.

Palestinian American Research Center

Young, I. M. (1996). Communication and the other: beyond deliberative democracy. In Benhabib, S. (Ed.). Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, 125–143. Princeton University Press.