Two weeks ago we announced that the Colloquium series would be featuring the work of PhD students. January 30th Alicia Miklos presented on gender violence and representations of it in the media in Nicaragua. This week we are back with the second installment of the series and another presentation on Nicaragua. This week’s PhD student is John Petrus. He will be presenting his work “Transformative Performance Art: Complicating the Body in Contemporary Managua”. Once again, the format of this presentation is a workshop, meaning that participants are asked to read the portion of John’s dissertation that he has already provided in order to give helpful and critical feedback to the presenter. 

 

As the title of his presentation suggests, John’s project focuses on gender transgression in performance art in contemporary Managua. His work dialogues well with Alicia’s because he focuses on transgressive gender performance as a response to the violent masculinities that beget the sort of violence against women we saw in the last presentation. In that light, this particular piece of research offers an analysis on gender transgression and the theatricality of the body in selected performance pieces from artist Elyla Sinvergüenza. John has spent the better part of the past two summers carrying out research in Managua on the cultural movements on the ground. In his work, he draws parallels between performance studies and the study of coloniality of power and knowledge, from Peruvian sociologist and humanist Anibal Quijano. The performances that John observed during his time in Managua, he claims, are intended to be cultural interventions meant to alter hegemonic understandings of gender and sexuality in Nicaraguan communities. 

 

We were fortunate again to have the chance to sit down and chat with John about his dissertation and his upcoming workshop. Here is what he told us: 

 

I decided to present my work at the colloquium this year because it's a fantastic opportunity not only to showcase the progress I've made in my dissertation, but also to receive valuable feedback from my colleagues and peers. I'm really happy to be a part of this colloquium series featuring graduate students in our department- it's wonderful to showcase the varied research projects we are involved in and it's a great opportunity for us to understand our colleagues’ work better and to give critical feedback. 

 

In my dissertation "Gender Transgression and Hegemony: the Politics of Gender Expression and Sexuality in Contemporary Managua", I study transgressive gender expression and performance in contemporary Nicaragua (1979-present). In this project, I understand gender transgression as a performative response to compulsory heterosexuality, violent masculinity, hegemonic normative gender roles, and State and international sexual politics. My work seeks to highlight how distinctive strategies of gender expression in cultural texts relate to the coloniality of power and knowledge. I show how Nicaraguan performers contend with, mediate, critique, and/or reinforce expectations of gender performance. In turn, I investigate how certain expectations of gender performance are promoted by either local or transnational discourses. 

 

I came to my topic during my research trips over the past two years in Managua- I have been very lucky to be in the right place at the right time meeting the right people to provide for a rich research project. I knew I wanted to focus on gender expression in a variety of media, but I had no idea that I would be given access to such a rich corpus of cultural texts to comment. 

 

I have been going on research trips for the past two years in Managua. I was lucky to work with and learn from the incredible research team at the Instituto de Historia de Nicaragua y Centroamérica at the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua. The conversations and research I shared there were formative for my project. I was lucky to meet several artists and activists as well that allowed me to experience and document cultural interventions that I analyze in my project. 

 

The "texts" that I study depart from a traditional notion of text in order to include audio-visual productions, visual productions, performance art, as well as blogs, short written texts, speeches, and posts on social media websites. I choose to study these cultural productions as having the same relevance and importance as written texts in more traditional formats- indeed, many of the interventions I see as particularly impact-full and creative are not available in traditional archives of novels, historical texts, essays, and/or periodical texts. 

 

The goal of this project is to demonstrate how coloniality has continued to function with respect to contemporary gender performance as well to recognize the brave, complex, creative, and astute cultural interventions being created by Nicaraguan performers and artists that grapple with oppressive gender systems. I carry out my analysis by reading and engaging intellectually with audio-visual cultural texts from a variety of media including performance art, television programs, short documentaries, low-budget videos, film, and photography produced in the last two decades.

 

Beyond the requirements to graduate, I am driven to continue this writing project because I am inspired by the artists, intellectuals, and activists that I write about. I think there is a lot to be learned from Nicaragua's current socio-political situation, especially with regards to a hotly contested terrain of ideologies of gender roles and sexuality. I have learned so much on a personal level from my work- I really hope that people who choose to read it can get something out of it as well. 

 

The writing process has been an emotional roller-coaster with incredibly fulfilling high points and moments of extreme vulnerability. But, I think I'm a much better person having come face-to-face with my capabilities as a scholar as well as my insecurities. I try to remind myself that, at the end of the day, it's a Word document. It just happens to be a word document that I've poured my hopes, dreams, and ambitions into for the past two years. 

 

I am working on my last chapter (on LGBTQ Pride and similar events in Managua) right now. I'm hoping to finish final drafts of this chapter and my Introduction by March 15th in order to have a preliminary draft of the dissertation completed to send out to my committee that week. 

 

John’s presentation will take place this Friday, February 13 from 2:20-3:40 pm in Hagerty Hall 255. Attendance is open to the public. If you would like a copy of his work, please either email John directly or Graduate Student Colloquium Co-coordinator, Teddy Palomino. Immediately following John’s presentation, there will be a second workshop featuring another of SPPO’s PhD students, Jessica Rutherford. She will also be presenting her work in HH255 but as part of the “Americas Before 1900 Working Group” Happy Hour Series. Her research examines the practices and practitioners of natural medicine and associated healing rituals described in sixteenth-century Jesuit writings from colonial Mexico and Brazil. This project demonstrates how Jesuit intervention in the Americas restructured the relationship between empire, local communities, and the natural world.  Jessica is currently a LASER/Humanities Institute graduate fellow and mentor. For a copy of her work and to RSVP for her workshop, please email her.