In the Media
Roberto Irizarry, associate professor and coordinator of modern languages, was appointed by the New Haven Board of Alders to the city’s Peace Commission.
Roberto Irizarry, Ph.D.
Department of Human Sciences - Modern Languages
College of Arts and Sciences
Education
Ph.D. Spanish American Literature, University of Kansas
M.A. Spanish, University of Kansas
B.A. English Literature, Universidad de Puerto Rico
Statement
How are race, ethnicity, and national identity performed? Are these identities final or can they evolve and facilitate production collaborations as they evolve in different iterations? Whether I am analyzing theater and performance art by New York Puerto Ricans or Dominicans or interpreting Hip-Hop produced by Dominicans in Puerto Rico, I explore these basic questions as they emerge within literature or popular culture. Furthermore, my teaching aims at creating spaces where diverse cultures interact and open themselves up to new views of themselves through lenses provided by new languages or critical contexts.
See MoreResearch Interests
Latin American and US Latino/a Literature
Latin American and US Latino/a Theater and Performance Art
Latin American and US Latino/a Hip-Hop
Caribbean Literature and Culture
Publications
"Vanguardia, raza y nación: una lectura de la negritud de la novela mexicana Panchito Chapopote y del estridentismo a la luz del modernismo brasileño" (Accepted for publication by TRANSMODERNITY: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World.)
"Licking the Wounds: Communal Self-Care in Migdalia Cruz’s Miriam’s Flowers." In Ollantay. 13. 35-36 (2010): 53-59.
"The Ever-Unfinished Business: Translating Migdalia Cruz." In Ollantay. 13. 35 36 (2010): 109-112.
See More"Las flores de Miriam." Teatro puertorriqueño en Estados Unidos. Ed. Rosalina Perales. San Juan: Instituto de Cultura, 2010. 90-132.
Para que sepas: Anhelos e Historias de Mujeres de Chiapas/So you know: Dreams and Stories by Women of Chiapas. San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas: Melel Xojobal, 2008. Co-translated with Alberto Hernández Lemus.
"Traveling Light: Performance, Autobiography and Immigration in Josefina Báez’s Dominicanish."Gestos 42 (Nov 2006): 81-96.
"Desenterrando y mareando la memoria: el arte del recuerdo de Agua, Sol y Sereno." Sargasso Special Issue (2004-2005): 37-55.
"The House of Pretension: Space and Performance in Miguel Piñero’s Theater." Latin American Theater Review 37.2 (Spring 2004): 77-94.
Selected Conference Presentations and Research Activity
"Visiones del yo: La producción de la identidad propia en el hip-hop de Velcro." Connecticut chapter of the Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, October 29, 2011.
"Performing to Live in the Neoliberal Age: Individualism and Collectivism in El Clown." Latin American Studies Association Congress, Toronto, October 6-9, 2010.
"Remixing the Motherland: Representations of the Homeland in Immigrant Hip Hop by Sietenueve and 113." Voices from the In-Between Conference. U of Massachusetts-Amherst. April 16-18, 2010.
"The Yola’s Revenge: Dominican-Rican Voices in the Puerto Rican Underground." Latin American Studies Association Conference. Rio de Janeiro. June 11-15, 2009.
"From the Weary Blues to Motivos de Son and Back: The Early Ballad of Langston Hughes and Nicolás Guillén." American Comparative Literature Association Conference. University of Harvard. March 26-29, 2009.
"Licking the Wounds: Trauma and Self-Treatment in Migdalia Cruz’s Miriam’s Flowers and Salt," Latin American Theatre Today Conference. VirginiaTech, March 26-29, 2008.
"Hemispheric Cultures, Knowledge, and Identity: Trans-Border Imaginings" (workshop and panel). Re-Thinking the Latin@ Intellectual Ecology Conference. University on Connecticut. October 12, 2007.
Performance Art Workshop with Guillermo Gómez Peña and La Pocha Nostra. University of Connecticut. October 7-9, 2007
Attendance and filming of performances. "Tercer Simposio Nacional de Hip Hop" Havana, Cuba. July 25-29, 2007
"Violence and Subjectivity in Brazilian Hip-Hop: Apropos of Rappin’ Hood and MV Bill." Society for the Study of Social Imagery and C.S.U Pueblo Conference on Violence. Colorado Springs, March 9, 2007.
"Mayra Santos en Cualquier miércoles soy tuya:¿ Qué es una autora en la era de la representación globalizada?" Northeastern Modern Language Association. March 6, 2006.