Mariana Ortega, associate professor of philosophy and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State University, will present Bucknell’s annual Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Gender and the Department of Women’s & Gender Studies distinguished lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Elaine Langone Center’s Forum (Room 272). Ortega’s free, public lecture — entitled “To(o) Queer the Artist: An Aesthesis of Self-Making” — will be followed by a reception in the ELC Center Room (256) in which her artwork will be on display.
Inspired by the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, Ortega introduces a notion of autoarte and artistic production aimed at both disclosing and transforming the self. Her main areas of research and interest are women of color feminisms — in particular Latina feminisms — 20th Continental philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy of race, and aesthetics. Her research focuses on questions of self, identity and sociality, as well as visual representations of race, gender and sexuality.
The talk is co-sponsored by the University Lectureship Committee, the Office of the Provost, and the departments of art and art history and philosophy.