Join us for a full-day interdisciplinary conference titled Aesthetics of Joy and Refuge in Contemporary Culture, hosted by The Latinx Project. Featuring presentations by a range of scholars and cultural producers, each transforming contemporary visual culture, creative industries, and scholarship. Please RSVP for the conference via Eventbrite for campus access. Seating is first-come, first-served.
Aesthetics of Joy and Refuge in Contemporary Culture
Friday, October 10, 2025
9:00am Breakfast & Registration
9:50am Welcome
10:00am-11:40am Panel: Media and New Technologies
Arcelia Gutiérrez (University of California, Irvine): The Case for Media Reparations
Harold J. Leonard Navarro (Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras): Beyond Recognition: Black Bodies, AI, and the Aesthetics of Recognition
Michael Anthony Turcios (Northwestern University): Experiments with Burning ICE: Rage as Joy and Refuge
Nathan Rossi (Northwestern University): Digital Mestizaje, the Datafication of Latinx Identity, and the Political Economy of Brownness on TikTok
Ramón Resendiz (University of Oregon): Visualizing Archival Resistance: Producing Refuge & Justice through Documentary Media across the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
Moderator: Sharon De La Cruz (New York University)
11:50am-1:30pm Panel: Perspectives on Visual Art
Armando Perla (University of Montreal): Diasporic Aesthetics of Resistance: Indigenous Mesoamerican Museologies and the Visual Politics of Memory
Deanna Ledezma (University of Illinois Chicago): Lineages of Labor: Contemporary Latinx Artists at Work
Debbie M Duarte (Pitzer College): Alien Toy Takes a Joyride: Sensing Borderless Futurities
Joanne Gil Rivera (La Calle Loíza, Inc.): Somos Cangrejos: Mapa, Arte, Foro
Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet (Howard University Gallery of Art): Africana Kairibe Malungaje: Futurist Reversed Memories
Moderator: Robert Hernandez (Fordham University)
2:30pm-4:10pm Panel: Joy and Embodiment
Andy Rafael Aguilera (Western Washington University): “It Means Good”: Resistance and Refuge in Latinx Streetwear Brands in the Age of Trump
Gabrielle Vazquez (Curator): Diasporican Queens
Jose Ferrufino (Industrial designer): Al mal tiempo, buena cara: The Making of Beauty
Odalis Garcia Gorra (University of Texas at Austin): Dancing at the Threshold: Joy, Resistance, and the Counter-Archives of Diasporican
Orquidea Morales (University of Arizona): Excess and Monstrosity: The Freedom and Pain of La Gordita
Moderator: Gabriel Magraner (The Latinx Project)
4:20pm-6:00pm Panel: Migration and Border Culture
Daniel J. Vázquez Sanabria (University of Texas at Austin): Return is/as Refuge: Crip Narratives of Migration in Contemporary Puerto Rican Cultural Productions
Jose Alaniz (University of Washington, Seattle): Out of the Chispaverse: Chispa Comics as ‘Militarized Border Visuality’
Kiri Avelar (University of Utah): Transnational Family Dance Lineages of the U.S./Mexico Bracero Program
Mikayla Hernandez Guevara (School of the Art Institute of Chicago): What a Border to Cross: Domesticana, Material, and Aesthetics of Migration in Shaping a Transcendent Chicana Identity
Taylor Seaver De La Fuente (University of Michigan): Lo Que Le Pasó al Valle
Moderator: Cristina Beltrán (New York University)
6:00pm-7:00pm Community Reception