AUSTIN, Texas—The 18th annual Américo Paredes Distinguished Lecture at The University of Texas at Austin at 7 p.m., Thursday (April 15) will feature Aida Hurtado, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Hurtado’s presentation is titled “A Social Psychologist in Dialogue with a Folklorist: Performative and Visual Art in the Construction of Social Identities.”
The lecture takes place in the Texas Union Santa Rita Room, 3.502. A reception follows. Parking is available in the San Antonio Garage. Maps of The University of Texas at Austin are available online.
The Américo Paredes Distinguished Lecture was established by the university’s Center for Mexican American Studies in 1987. The series honors Américo Paredes, who before his death in 1999 was the Dickson, Allen and Anderson Centennial Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and English at The University of Texas at Austin.
Hurtado’s research focuses on the effects of subordination on social identity, the part of the self that is related to significant group memberships. Hurtado is especially interested in those group memberships (for example, ethnicity, race, class and gender) that are looked down upon in society and are used to legitimate unequal distribution of power between groups.
Hurtado’s book, “The Color of Privilege: Three Blasphemies on Race and Feminism,” tackles the persistent and thorny problems of gender and racial allegiance within the women’s movement and progressive politics.
The book is credited with making a powerful contribution to feminist scholarship by taking on sensitive subjects that have been considered “untouchable”—hence, the use of the word “blasphemies” in the title.
Focusing on young women between the ages of 20 and 30, Hurtado’s book, “Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Identity and Sexuality,” explores the relationship between Chicana feminisms and the experience of Chicanas.
For more information contact: Center for Mexican American Studies, 512-471-4557.
