PhD CUNY Graduate Center
BA New York University
Richard Perez is Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York where he teaches courses on U.S. Latino/a, Caribbean, and Postcolonial literatures. He is the creator and director of John Jay College’s minor in U.S. Latino/a Literature. He is concluding a book project entitled Towards a Negative Aesthetics: U.S. Latino/a Fiction and the Remaking of American Literature, which explores the use of the negative in U.S. Latino/a aesthetic formations. In support of his book manuscript, Professor Perez was awarded the prestigious Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellowship. His manuscript also garnered the City University of New York Faculty Publication Program Fellowship and two PSC-CUNY Grants. Professor Perez is the co-editor of two critical anthologies published by Palgrave Macmillan. His first edited book, Contemporary U.S. Latino/a Criticism (2007), evaluates the state of U.S. Latino/a literary studies and projects an interdisciplinary vision of that study for the 21st Century. This book was part of Palgrave’s series on American Literature Readings of the 21st Century. His second edited anthology, Moments of Magical Realism in U.S. Ethnic Literatures (2012), points to a subtle shift away from privileging magical realism as a monolithic category in the literature of the Americas and focuses this critical approach on writers of color who deploy magical realist moments to refer to traumatic or suppressed histories. His most recent critical anthology, The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century, examines magical realism in literatures from around the globe. Featuring twenty-seven essays written by leading scholars, this anthology argues that literary expressions of magical realism proliferate globally in the twenty-first century due to travel and migrations, the shrinking of time and space, and the growing encroachment of human life on nature. Professor Perez also co-founded the Biennial U.S. Latina/o Literary Theory and Criticism Conference. In addition, John Jay College awarded Professor Perez with the Scholarly Mentorship Award in 2012 and the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2013. His work has also appeared in the Centro Journal for Puerto Rican Studies, Women Studies Quarterly, Latino Studies Journal, and MELUS Journal.
Latinx Literature Minor
PART ONE. Foundation Course
Select one
| LLS 143 | Introduction to Latinx Literature |
3 |
| LIT 265 | Foundations of U.S. Latinx Literature |
3 |
Advisor’s recommendation: LLS 143 is part of the Flexible Core: U.S. Experience in Its Diversity area and LIT 265 is part of the College Option: Justice Core I (200-level transfer seminar) areas of the College’s Gen Ed Program.
Subtotal: 3
PART TWO. 100- and 200-Level Electives
Select two courses
| LIT 267 | Latinx Horror and Gothic in Literature and Film |
3 |
| LIT 268 | Latinx Graphic Novel |
3 |
| LLS 270 | Afro-Latinx Literature |
3 |
| LLS 273 | Latinx Film and Media |
3 |
Advisor’s recommendation. These course fulfill the Individual and Society or the U.S. Experience in its Diversity areas of the Flexible Core in the Gen Ed program.
Subtotal: 6
PART THREE. 300- and 400-Level Electives
Select three courses
| LIT 357 | Latinx Street Literature |
3 |
| LIT 383 | Gender and Sexuality in U.S. Latinx Literature |
3 |
| LIT 409 | Seminar in U.S. Latinx Literature |
3 |
| LLS 362 | Entangled Tongues: Bilingualism in U.S. Latinx Literature |
3 |
| LLS 363 | Il-Legal Subjects: U.S. Latinx Literature and the Law |
3 |
| LLS 364 | Ethical Strains in U.S. Latinx Literature |
3 |
Subtotal: 9
TOTAL CREDIT HOURS: 18
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND BOARD APPOINTMENTS
Board Member of the Centro Journal for Puerto Rican Studies
Co-founder and co-organizer of Biennial U.S. Latinx Literary Theory and Criticism Conference
Puerto Rican Studies Association
Caribbean Studies Association
The Society for the Study of Multi-ethnic Literature of the United States
Latinx Studies Association
Modern Language Association
American Literature Association
American Comparative Literature Association
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Books-in-Progress:
“Towards a Negative Aesthetics: U.S. Latinx Fiction and the Remaking of American Literature.” This text explores the negative as a catalytic element in the aesthetic formation of U.S. Latinx Literature. (Revising for Submission).
“Latinx Phenomenologies: Writing at the Edge of Being,” (Work-in-Progress).
Edited Books:
The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Edited with Victoria Chevalier.
Moments of Magical Realism in the Multi-ethnic Literature of the Americas. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). Edited with Lyn Di Iorio Sandin.
Contemporary U.S. Latino/a Literary Criticism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Edited with Lyn Di Iorio Sandin.
Book Chapters and Journal Articles:
“Harboring Spirits: Deontological Time, Magic, and Race in Gods Go Begging by Alfredo Vea.”
In The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century edited by Richard Perez and Victoria Chevalier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
“Proliferations of Being: The Persistence of Magical Realism in Twenty-First Century Literature and Culture.” (with Victoria Chevalier) In The Palgrave Handbook of Magical Realism in the Twenty-First Century edited by Richard Perez and Victoria Chevalier. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
“Differential Visions: the Diasporic Stranger, Subalternity, and the Transing of Experience in U.S. Puerto Rican Literature.” In The Cambridge History of Latina/o Literature edited by John Moran Gonzalez and Laura Lomas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
“Failed Potential or the Potentiality of Failure: Art, Privation, and Decolonial Memory in Edward Rivera’s Family Installments: Memories of Growing Up Hispanic” Review 94, CCNY Latino/Latin American Writers, Spring 2017.
“The Debt of Memory: Reparations, Imagination, and History in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” WSQ Journal at the Feminist Press. WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, 42:1&2 Spring/Summer 2014.
"Flashes of Transgression: The Fuku, Negative Aesthetics, and the Future in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.” In Moments of Magical Realism in the Multi-ethnic Literature of the Americas. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
“Tracing Magical Irruptions in U.S. Ethnic Literatures.” (with Lyn Di Iorio Sandin) Intro to Moments of Magical Realism in American Ethnic Literatures, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
“Emerging Canons, Unfolding Ethnicities: A Reading of U.S. Latino/a Literary Theory” Centro Journal For Puerto Rican Studies. Spring 2010.
“Racial Spills and Disfigured Faces in Piri Thomas’ Down These Mean Streets and Junot Diaz’s ‘Ysrael.’” In Contemporary U.S. Latino/a Literary Criticism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Pgs. 93-112.
“New Waves in U.S. Latino/a Literary Criticism.” (with Lyn Di Iorio Sandin) Intro to Contemporary U.S. Latino/a Literary Criticism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, pgs. 1-11.
“Remembering My Father’s Face: Latino Baseball, Roberto Clemente, and an Ethics of Hospitality” in Centro Journal For Puerto Rican Studies. Fall 2007.
Interview of Edgardo Vega Yunque regarding his novel No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew it Cauze Bill Bailey Ain’t Never Coming Home Again: A Symphonic Novel in Centro Journal for Puerto Rican Studies. Spring 2006.
“Transamerican Imaginaries, Archival Revelations: The Current State of Latino/a Literary Theory” in Centro Journal For Puerto Rican Studies. Fall 2005.
Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award, Spring 2013.
Outstanding Scholarly Mentorship Award, Spring 2012.