Professor Watchlist

Karma Chávez is Chair and Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies at the University of Texas, Austin (UTA). Her interests include “social movements, queer of color critique, abolition, rhetoric, and coalitions.” In her faculty profile, Chávez states:

“My scholarship is primarily informed by queer of color theory and women of color feminism. Methodologically, I am a rhetorical critic who utilizes textual and field-based methods. I am interested in studying social movement building, activist rhetoric, and coalition politics.” 

In 2019, Chávez published “Palestine on the Air,” a book comprised of interviews she conducted among residents of Gaza. Chávez’s publisher, the University of Illinois Press, said:

“Few doubt the pro-Israel bias of the Western media. It takes the form of overtly supporting Israel’s government policies, or of maintaining neutrality or silence on issues of Israeli violence, occupation, and settlement expansion. Scholar and activist [Chávez] collects eleven interviews that allow dissenting voices a forum to provide rarely heard perspectives on the Palestinian struggle for justice, land, and self-determination.”

In the book introduction, Chávez writes:

“A U.S. audience remains important in conversations about Palestine, not just so that people will make conceptual connections like ‘their walls are our walls,’ although such basic links are valuable. Instead, a U.S. audience is important because the United States is so deeply implicated in the ongoing occupation and apartheid conditions of Palestine/Israel.”

In an undated publication, Masters in Communication interviewed Chávez about statements she made in her book “The Borders of Aids: Race, Quarantine and Resistance.” The transcript shows Chávez was asked, “How do you view the alienating rhetoric surrounding HIV/AIDS that you trace [in your book] as relevant to understanding the current COVID-19 pandemic?” She responded:

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Published – March 26, 2024