Dr. Robert Diaz Jr.

Assistant Professor, Women and Gender Studies

Contact Information

Email: rdiaz@wlu.ca
Phone: 519 884 0710 ext.4277
Fax: 519 883 0991
Office Location: R106V - 202 Regina Street
Office Hours: Fall 2012 - Mon/Wed 12:00-1:00

Academic Background

• PhD in English, 2007 (The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
• MPhil in English, 2004 (The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
• BA (Hons) in English, 2002 (University of California Riverside)

Biography

Dr. Robert Diaz Jr. is an Assistant Professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research interests are in Asian North American Studies, Filipino Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Queer Theory, Performance Studies, and Postcolonial Studies. Before coming to Wilfrid Laurier, Robert was an Assistant Professor of English (tenure track) at Wayne State University in Michigan. He has been awarded two competitive external fellowships, an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships at UCLA with the theme of "Homosexualities: From Antiquity to the Present" (2009-2010), and an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at USC with a theme of "Comparative Ethnic Studies" (2007-2008). He also co-guest edited a special issue of Women and Performance on "Performing Reparation: Practice, Methodology, Processes" (Routledge Press), and his writings have appeared in Women and Performance, Criticism, GLQ, and Plaridel. His current book project, Reparative Acts: Figures of Queer Redress in Philippine Nationalisms explores how representations of key figures in Philippine nationalisms have been queered by diasporic artists and intellectuals in order to expand on the meanings of historical reparation and monetary redress.

Aside from working in the university, Robert is also committed to community engagement and social justice, which grew out of his being a full-time Community Outreach Worker at APICHA (Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS) in New York City, during his time there as a graduate student. He continues this commitment by working with LGBT and Filipino focused organizations in the Greater Toronto Area.

PUBLICATIONS

"Queer Love and Urban Intimacies in Martial Law Manila." Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society. 9:2, 2012. University of the Philippines Press.

"Queer Histories and the Global City." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Volume 18, Number 2-3, 2012. Duke University Press.