Race and the Premodern Period Presents: Dr. Ruben Espinosa

Dr. Ruben Espinosa is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he works on issues of race, language, ethnic identity, assimilation, and immigration at the intersection of Shakespeare Studies and Latinx Studies. He is the author of Masculinity and Marian Efficacy in Shakespeare’s England (2011), and the co-editor of Shakespeare and Immigration (2014). He is currently working on two monographs, Shakespeare on the Border: Language, Legitimacy and La Frontera, and Shakespeare on the Shades of Racism.

In “Shakespeare and the Making of an American,” Dr. Espinosa will discuss how attending to the history of inhumanity and the inhumanity of our historical present when it comes to Black and brown lives is imperative as we imagine the future of Shakespeare studies. More specifically, this talk will examine the way indifference—in both the realm of early modern studies and in our society at large— to recursive acts of violence against Black and brown individuals serves to reinforce structures of white supremacy that define, in vividly dangerous ways, the pressures of assimilation for those darker of skin in this America.

Please register at Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/race-and-the-premodern-speaker-series-tickets-136729582863