Paloma Martinez-Cruz teaches Latinx Cultural Studies in the areas of performance and popular culture; decolonial methods and practices; and Latin American and Latinx gender studies and feminisms. She is the author of Trust the Circle: The Resistance and Resilience of Rubén Castilla Herrera Food Fight! (2023), Millennial Mestizaje Meets the Culinary Marketplace (2019), and Women and Knowledge in Mesoamerica: From East L.A. to Anahuac (2011). She is the editor of A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society by Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Saúl García-López (Routledge). An interdisciplinary scholar-artist, she publishes poetry and fiction, directs and performs with the Taco Reparations Brigade performance troupe, and coordinates Onda Latinx Ohio, an arts initiative showcasing Latinx arts from the Midwest and beyond.  

Select Publications

• A Handbook for the Rebel Artist in a Post-Democratic Society. Editor with Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Saul Garcia-Lopez. (New York: Routledge, January, 2021). 
• Food Fight! Millennial Mestizaje Meets the Culinary Marketplace. (University of Arizona Press, February, 2019.).
• Rebeldes: A Proyecto Latina Anthology. Editor. (Chicago: Proyecto Latina, 2013.)
• Women and Knowledge in Mesoamerica: From East L.A. to Anahuac. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2011).
• Ponciá Vicencio, Conçeicão Evaristo. Translator. (New York: Host Publications, 2007). 
• "Chicano Dracula: The Passions and Predations of Bela Lugosi, Gomez Addams, and Kid Congo Powers" Decolonizing Latinx Masculinities. Editor: Frederick Aldama and Arturo Aldama. (Tuscon: The University of Arizona Press, 2020. 185-195).  
• With John Cruz.  “Hemisexualizing the Latin Lover: Film and Live Art Interpretations and Provocations" The Routledge Companion to Gender, Sex and Pop Culture in Latin America. Editor: Frederick Aldama. (New York: Routledge, 2018. 206-221).   
• “The Intimate Life of the Pocha: A Genealogy of the Self-Ironic Turn in Chican@ Culture.” Routledge History of Latin American Culture. Editor: Carlos Salomon. (New York: Routledge, 2018. 338-349).
• “Farmworker-to-Table Mexican: Decolonizing Haute Cuisine.” The Routledge Companion to Latina/o Popular Culture. Editor: Frederick Aldama. (New York: Routledge, 2016. 239-255).
• “Performance Pedagogy in the Latino Literature Classroom: Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s La Pocha Nostra.” Latino/a Literature in the Classroom: 21st Century Approaches to Teaching. Editors: Frederick Aldama. (New York: Routledge, 2015. 159-167). 
• With Liza Ann Acosta. “El Macho: A Performance Perspective Which Tells How the Women of Teatro Luna Became Men.” Performing the US Latin@ Borderlands. Eds. Chela Sandoval, Arturo Aldama, and Peter Garcia. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. 283-295).
• “Mapping the Burrito Circuit: On How the Dirty Reggae of the Aggrolites Remains an Eastside Persuasion.” Aztlán Journal, Vol. 43.2 (2018. 77-101).
• “Un-fixing the Race: Midcentury Sonic Latinidad in the Shadow of Hollywood” Latino Studies XIV.2 (2016. 150-171).

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Teaching

Feminist Theory and Practice                                         Critical Race Theory  

Decolonial Epistemologies                                              Decolonial Foodways Performance Pedagogy    

Hemispheric Popular Culture Sound Studies                 Gender and Power in the Americas

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 Public Interventions 

• Blog Onda Latino Ohio: Latinas and aliad@s united to support creative visibility for the Latinx community in Ohio, 2013-present. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
• Coordinator and Artistic Director, OSU Día de los Muertos Celebrations, 2015-present. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Día de los Muertos OSU Celebration Video.
• Faculty Advisor of National Spanish Honor Society Sigma Delta Pi, 2015-present. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
• Migration, Mobility, and Immobility Steering Committee, 2018-2020. Discovery Themes Initiative. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
• “The Other is My Selfie: Exploring Diversity through Everyday Performance,” August 2018; August 2019. Humanities and Cognitive Sciences High School Summer Institute. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH,
• Producer, Guillermo Gómez-Peña La Pocha Nostra Imaginary Activism Residency, 2015 and 2017. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

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