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Conference Schedule 2019

Conference Schedule 2019

Friday, February 22, 2019, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Keynote: Topography of the Self with Carmen Giménez Smith, Letras Latinas

Date(s): Friday, February 22, 2019, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Location: Carson Ballroom, Old Main (view map)
Type(s): Keynote, Reception, Talk
Genre and Form(s): Autobiography, Human Rights, Pedagogy, Social Justice, Social Practice
Tags: Decolonization, The Self, Activism, Aesthetics, Epistemology

About the Keynote

Gloria Anzaldua referred to her groundbreaking book Borderlands as an autohistoria-teoria, an epistemological autobiography. She conceived of the liminal space, El Mundo Zurdo, where becoming and thinking converge for radical acts of decolonization, and posited the possibility that writing is the praxis where activism, aesthetics, and scholarship converge. Together, we will consider the practice of telling self through and from different types of liminalities and/or polyvocalities at the intersection of the aesthetic and the intellectual as a path towards transformation

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Meet our Faculty

Meet the Presenter(s)

Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference Faculty 2019 Carmen Giménez Smith


Carmen Giménez Smith

Born in New York, poet Carmen Giménez Smith is the daughter of South American immigrants. A CantoMundo fellow, she earned a BA in English from San Jose State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa's Writer Workshop. She writes lyric essays as well as poetry, and is the author of the poetry chapbook Casanova Variations (2009), the full-length collection Odalisque in Pieces (2009), the memoir Bring Down the Little Birds: On Mothering, Art, Work, and Everything Else (2010).

Learn more about Carmen Giménez Smith

Logo for Letras Latinas


Letras Latinas

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study of Latinx literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame—with an emphasis on programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latinx writers in community spaces.

Learn more about Letras Latinas