In this talk, Richard T. Rodríguez will discuss his recent book A Kiss Across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad and its reception since publication. Published by Duke University Press, the book explores the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latine audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodríguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers whose music and styles hold significant sway on generations of fans enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations.
Richard T. Rodríguez is Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. Beginning fall 2025, he’ll join the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles as Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies. He is the author of Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics (2009) and A Kiss across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad (2022), both published by Duke University Press. The author of numerous articles about Latine cultural expression and politics, he is currently finishing a book of poems about his time living in Chicago titled Exemplars and Accomplices.
