Event Date
Professor Susy Zepeda in conversation with Gina Aparicio, Visual Artist and Art Professor, Sierra College
Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas blends scholarship with spirit practices to reimagine the root work, dis/connection to land, and the political decolonization of Xicana/x peoples. Zepeda highlights the often overlooked yet intertwined legacies of Chicana feminisms and queer decolonial theory through the work of select queer Indígena cultural producers and thinkers. By tracing the ancestries and silences of gender-nonconforming people of color, she addresses colonial forms of epistemic violence and methods of transformation, in particular spirit research. Zepeda uses archival materials, raised ceremonial altars, and analysis of decolonial artwork in conjunction with oral histories to explore the matriarchal roots of Chicana/x and Latina/x feminisms. As she shows, these feminisms are forms of knowledge that people can remember through Indigenous-centered visual narratives, cultural wisdom, and spirit practices.
Susy Zepeda, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Chicana/o/x Studies department at the University of California, Davis (Patwin homeland). Her scholarly work is intentionally transdisciplinary, decolonial, and feminist in a community-centered and grounded way. Susy’s research and teaching focus on: Xicana Indígena spirit work, decolonization, critical feminist of color collaborative methodologies, oral and visual storytelling, and intergenerational healing. She has established two courses at UCD, Decolonizing Spirit and Food Justice.
Learn more about Professor Susy Zepeda's work here.