Wanda Alarcon

Interests

Research

My research interests live within the generative intersections of Chicanx and Latinx cultural studies, decolonial feminism, sound studies, and popular music. More specifically, my research investigates ways of listening to a field of multiple resistant sounds that signal the enduring audible presence of Mexican and Latinx communities in the U.S. that shape the contested soundscape of América. In particular, I focus on Chicana soundscapes in literature and decolonial feminist listening practices in order to amplify Chicana and queer Chicana voices, histories, and worlds.

Teaching

Chicana Literature, Chicana/o and Latinx Cultural Studies, Queer Latinx Literatures, Butch Femme Literatures, Chicana Feminisms, U.S. Third World Feminisms, Decolonial Feminisms, Sound Studies, Popular Music, Humanities Research Methods, Graduate Writing

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Journals/Publications

• Alarcon, W. (2020). Guest Editor's Introduction: "World"-Making and "World"-Travelling with Decolonial Feminisms and Women of Color. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 41(1), x-xxi.
  More info

  Alarcón, Wanda, et al. "Guest Editors' Introduction: "World"-Making and "World"-Travelling with Decolonial Feminisms and Women of Color." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 41 no. 1, 2020, p. x-xxi. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/755336.
• Alarcon, W. (2020). Reading and Remembering Butch-Femme Worlds. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 14(2), 145 - 171. doi:https://doi.org/10.24974/amae.14.2.368
  More info

  This essay examines the practice of building a syllabus that centers butch-femme literatures as a pedagogy of gathering and recuperation. Prompted by the loss of an early syllabus on lesbian histories, I examine the genre of the syllabus and contend that “butch-femme” is not the same as “queer” or “LGBTQ.” Through reflective and autobiographical writing on memory, place, queerness, and social media, the essay traces an ephemeral archiving revealing the stakes for naming and remembering butch-femme lesbian “worlds.” The essay highlights a sample student project and offers a syllabus as a teaching resource.

Others

• Alarcon, W. (2020, February). Butchlalis de Panochtitlan. Oxford Encyclopedia of Literature. https://doi-org.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.345
  More info

  Butchlalis de Panochtitlan are a queer Chicana-Latina theater and multimedia performance group active as an ensemble from 2002 to 2010. Formed in Los Angeles, they have performed in a range of venues and events throughout California and nationally. They premiered their major stage works at the important queer cultural arts center Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, California. Although they are no longer active as a group and few primary documents exist, their impact is traceable well beyond these limits and local contexts. This article presents an overview of the work and impact of Butchlalis de Panochtitlan with attention to key themes in their body of work including home, belonging, queer family, gentrification, butch-femme relations, and brown butch socialities and aesthetics. This article draws from primary and secondary sources, digital recordings, visual images, online sources, ephemera, reviews, and published interviews.