Juan Manuel (JuanMa) Ramirez Velazquez

PhD, Hispanic Studies, Washington University in St. Louis (2023)

-Graduate Certificate in Latin American Studies, Washington U. in St. Louis (2023)

-Professional Development in Teaching Program, Washington U. in St. Louis (2022)

MA, Spanish, University of New Mexico (2017)

BBA, Marketing, Southwestern Oklahoma State University (2015)

BA, Spanish, Southwestern Oklahoma State University (2014)

Colonial Latin America and the early modern Atlantic world; migration and the border/land(s); women, gender, and sexuality; critical race and race before race theories; affect and performance; queer sexualities and spirituality; second language acquisition; inclusive pedagogies.

"Transgressive Mobilities: Women, Gender, and Affective Economies in the Ibero-Atlantic World, 1521-1650"

This dissertation explores the experiences of non-noble and secular women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities in colonial Latin America and the early modern Atlantic, highlighting their access to the legal world through information exchanges within the Spanish Empire. Using historical sources from colonial archives in Mexico, Peru, and Spain, I analyze the relationship between women’s mobility, their engagement with the law, and the creation of gendered narratives in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By examining various and unique legal documents written by women, such as lawsuits, letters, testaments, and royal decrees, I demonstrate their agency through storytelling and the strategic incorporation of emotion in their narratives. Drawing on the works of Sara Ahmed, Peter Adey, and Diana Taylor, I analyze the impact of mobility on women’s relationships with their environments, showcasing how women across different ethnicities represent their affective movements in their narratives to enhance their agency and authority. These narrated mobilities offer unique insights into women’s subjectivity and rhetorical strategies to navigate legal and economic systems for their advantage.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• "Sowing Wheat and Other Merits: The First Black Conquistador of the Mexican Field," Hispanic Review vol. 91, no. 2, Spring 2023, 197-219.
• "Maternal Landscapes: An Answer to the Problem of Women's Education in Colonial Mexico," Bulletin of Spanish Studies. Published online on 12/13/2022.

Public Scholarship

• "Imaginería cuir desde los bordes del convento," Revista Tierra Adentro (Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno de México), Dosier del Orgullo 2023.

Book Reviews

• The Mexican Mission: Indigenous Reconstruction and Mendicant Enterprise in New Spain, 1521-1600 by Ryan Dominic Crewe. The Sixteenth Century Journal, vol. 52, no. 1, Spring 2021, 167-169.

Works-in-Progress

• "Women Building the Colonial Archive: Legal Authority, Female Knowledge, and Affective Political Economies in the Sixteenth-Century Iberian Atlantic World"
• "Spanish Widows 'Living Off of Alms': Petitions, Economic Transactions, and Female Mobility in Early Colonial Mexico"
• "'Puto, bordonea tu con tus braços que vengo harta de trabajar': Sodomía imperfecta y experiencia femenina en el siglo XVI"

• Spanish 354: Latin American Literature: Illusion, Fantasy, Romanticism (Fall 2023)
• Spanish 468: Visions and Re-Visions of the Spanish Conquest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Fall 2023)

• Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Equity Small Grant, Washington U. in St. Louis (2023).
• Center for the Humanities Graduate Student Fellowship, Washington U. in St. Louis (2023).
• Graduate Student Summer Residency on Teaching and Learning, National Humanities Center (2022).
• Helen Fe Jones Outstanding Teaching Award, Washington U. in St. Louis (2021).
• Mellon Summer Institute in Spanish Paleography, The Huntington Library (2019).