Dissertation Proposal Presentation

Maillim Santiago and Kylie Erfani

Thursday, November 30, 2023 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM EST
Online Location

Maillim Santiago - The Ontology of Puerto Rican Cinema

In my dissertation, I will be exploring the ontology of Puerto Rican cinema. Precisely, what is Puerto Rican cinema? The earliest filmed images and narratives of Puerto Rico were made by non-Puerto Ricans, yet these examples of cinema often are excluded from what is historically considered to be Puerto Rican cinema. In my proposal presentation, I will outline the types of films I will consider as the Puerto Rican cinematic canon with this dissertation, and most importantly, how their varied production, exhibition, and distribution practices led to several modernization projects across Puerto Rico -- culturally, politically, economically, and socially. Other related sub-questions embedded into this study are: How does Puerto Rican cinema function in international, national, and cultural contexts?  How is Puerto Rico constructed in the global cinematic canon? How are sociopolitical and cultural identities constructed through Puerto Rican cinema and towards what ends?

Kylie Erfani - Culture of Complaint: A Genealogical Investigation into the Neoliberal Crisis of Political Agency

My dissertation explores complaint in its uniquely 21st century form. I ask: what influence does the onset and intensification of neoliberalism exert on the form of complaint in the cultural and political landscape in the contemporary US American context, and to what end? Through an analysis of three case studies of “viral” complaints— the #MeToo Movement, Karen memes, “special snowflake” insults—my work contributes to ongoing debates on the morality of complaint and feminist arguments for complaint as patriarchal resistance by giving an account of the significant social transformations occurring at the level of political economy between 1980s and today that render complaint a uniquely pervasive and provocative cultural form in the 21st century. My working hypothesis is that complaint is a cultural form that is deeply influenced by transforming labor and gender relations, consumerist ideology and governmentality, and platform capitalism.

This event is scheduled for Nov 30th, at 4:30 PM and will be held virtually at this address.