Areas of Research/Interest

Erotic economies and desire; gender and sexuality; social class; post-Soviet transitions; media, ethnographic film and visual anthropology; Cuba and the United States

Publications

Selected Publications:

Books

"After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba", Duke University Press (Forthcoming)

Films

Luchando (2007) - A non-fiction film chronicling the lives queer sex-workers in Havana.

Articles

2011    “Gay Politics in Contemporary Cuba: The Case of the UN Vote” North American Congress on Latin America

2008    “Feminist, Queers, and Critics: Debating the Cuban Sex Trade” Journal of Latin American Studies

Book Reviews

2011    Venceremos: The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba, Jafari Allen, New West Indian Guide

2011    Sexual Revolutions in Cuba, Carrie Hamilton, American Anthropologist

2009    Economies of Desire: Sex and Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Amalia Cabezas, Journal of Latin American Studies

2008    Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Marc Padilla, Journal of Latin American Studies

2008    The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society, Alexander Gray and Antoni Kapcia, Journal of Latin American Studies

Current News / Projects

Updated March 2013 (Work from the academic year 2012)

I’m making final revisions on my book manuscript, After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Cuba (Duke University Press). Based on nearly two years of field research, the book explores how the rise of the sex tourist trade transformed ideas about intimacy, love, and labor for those on Havana’s sexual margins.

I am currently coauthoring an article with Cuban historian Abel Sierra Madero that juxtaposes media representations, popular culture, and the lives of sex workers in Havana, to consider how textual and sensory ethnography might speak back to dominant representations of the Cuban sex trade in Cuba and the United States. (Supported by a research grant from CLACS at NYU.)

Building on my interest in the intersection of political economy and daily intimacies, I am developing a new research project that explores affective sentiments of indebtedness generated by the subprime mortgage crisis. Through research in California’s Central Valley, I seek to explore how racial segregation, shifting forms of social class, and perspectives on credit and debt lead some homeowners to internalize the stigma of foreclosure, while others remain resilient to feelings of failure and shame.

This year, I am teaching an exciting group of graduate students in our film program. Projects include a documentary that follows the repatriation of the Navajo Eyes Project back to Pine Springs, a film about the rise of queer country music in Brooklyn, and a behind the scenes look at a gay porn star who partners with James Franco to go mainstream in Hollywood.

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