The Department of Latina/Latino Studies (LLS) will be hosting a visit and lecture by Richard T. Rodríguez, a former faculty member in Latina/o Studies and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rodríguez is a professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. Beginning Fall 2025, he will join the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles as a professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.
Rodriguez 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.
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. 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.