'Real and Reel Latinx Lives Matter,' a Lecture by Frederick Aldama
“Real and Reel Latinx Lives Matter!” During this discussion, Frederick Aldama will unzip his brain, offering a multimedia extravaganza of all things Latinx pop culture in the 21st century. This includes an exploration of how contemporary mainstream pop culture simplifies and straight jackets Latinx identity and experience. He will then contrast this with today’s abundance of Latinx created pop cultural phenomena (animation, webisodes, comic books, Tweet fiction) that vitally complicates and enriches our understanding of Latinx identity and experience. Along the way, Aldama will present a dynamic model for understanding Latinx subjects as active transformers of the world we live in today.
Speaker bio
Frederick Luis Aldama is Distinguished University Professor, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English, University Distinguished Scholar and Alumni Distinguished Teacher at the Ohio State University. He is the 2018 recipient of the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring and the Susan M. Hartmann Mentoring and Leadership Award. He is the award-winning author, co-author, and editor of 39 books. In 2018, Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics" won the International Latino Book Award and the Eisner Award for Best Scholarly Work. He is editor and co-editor of eight academic press book series as well as editor of Latinographix, a trade-press series that publishes Latinx graphic fiction and nonfiction. He is the creator of the first documentary on the history of Latinx superheroes in comics (Amazon Prime) and co-founder and director of SÕL-CON: Brown & Black Comix Expo. He is founder and director of the Obama White House award-winning LASER: Latinx Space for Enrichment & Research as well as founder and co-director of the Humanities & Cognitive Sciences High School Summer Institute. He has a joint appointment in Spanish and Portuguese as well as faculty affiliation in film studies and the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. His children’s book, The Adventures of Chupacabra Charlie" will be published by OSU Press in January 2020.