Susana Peña

Research/Teaching Interests: 
Latino/a Studies, Sexuality and Gender, Cultural Studies, and Race and Ethnicity.

Recent Publications:
"Latina/o Sexualities in Motion: Latina/o Sexualities Research Agenda Project."  Latina/o Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies.  Marysol Asencio, ed.  Rutgers University Press, 2010.

“‘Obvious’ Gays and the State Gaze:  Cuban Gay Visibility and U.S. Immigration Policy during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.”  2007.  Journal of the History of Sexuality 16: 3.  

“Visibility and Silence: Mariel and Cuban American Gay Male Experience and Representation.” Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings. Eithne Luibheid and Lionel Cantú, eds. University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

"Pájaration and Transculturation: Language and Meaning in Miami's Cuban American Gay Worlds." Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language.  William L. Leap and Tom Boellstorff, eds. University of Illinois Press, 2004.

She has also co-produced a documentary video titled Making the Struggle: Housing and Latinos in Isla Vista / Haciendo La Lucha: La Vivienda y los Latinos en Isla Vista, 1996.  

Recent Presentations:
“Lessons of the Racialized Family: Sociology and the Limits of Heteronormativity.” Part of the “Queer Community and Family Relationships” session at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, August 2009.  

“Representing Transgender in Cuban Miami:   Marytrini and La Flor de Hialeah.”  Latin American Studies Association International Congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2009.

“Tent City and Remembering Mariel.”  Race, Sex, Power: New Movements in Black & Latina/o Sexualities Conference, University of Illinois, Chicago, April 2008.

“Transgender Borderlands/Miami Borderlands: Documenting Early Cuban American Transgender Activists.”  Newberry Library Seminar in Borderlands and Latino Studies, Chicago, April 2008.

“Gay Cubanidad and the Diaspora: Transnational Sexuality.”  Queer Matters Conference, Kings College, London, May 2004.

Recent Awards and Recognitions: 
Prof. Peña received a post-doctoral fellowship (AY 2004-2005) from the Social Science Research Council’s Sexuality Research Fellowship Program to conduct additional research for her forthcoming book, Oye Loca: The Making of Cuban American Gay Miami. More recently, she received a travel research grant from the University of Florida's Latin American Studies libraries and BGSU's Research Incentive Grant to support her latest project, "Desiring Gaze: Race, Sexuality,and U.S.-Cuba Relations."