Biography
Emma Velez (she/they) is a settler Chicanx Okie, decolonial feminist, & transdisciplinary philosopher. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Velez is interested in the role that our social imaginaries play both in shaping and reimagining our ethical commitments, geopolitical responses to racialized and gendered colonial violence, as well as the politics of knowledge production. Centering the philosophical genealogies and embodied knowledge of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, their scholarship is rooted in storytelling and speculative theorizing and bridges conversations in philosophy, critical ethnic studies, and feminist theory. Velez is currently working on a book project titled, Orienting Historias: for a Decolonial Latinx Feminism, under contract with Duke University Press.
To learn more about Dr. Velez's work check out these interviews:
- Humanities Research Institute Inquiry Blog
- College of LAS 940 Feet
Research Interests
Latina/x Feminisms
Latin American and U.S. Latinx Decolonial Theory
Latin American and U.S. Latinx Philosophy
Critical Philosophy of Race
Continental Philosophy (esp. critical phenomenology)
Education
2020 Ph.D. in Philosophy & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University
2015 M.A. in Philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook
2013 B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, Oklahoma City University
Courses Taught
GWS 100: Intro to GWS
GWS 378: Fairytales, Myths, Legends & Gender Formation
GWS/LLS 496: Latinx Feminisms
GWS 498: Senior Seminar
GWS 550: Feminist Theory & Methods (grad seminar)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Latina/Latino Studies
Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Philosophy Department
Recent Publications
Tuana, N., & Velez, E. D. (Eds.) (2020). Toward Decolonial Feminisms. Critical Philosophy of Race, 8 (8-1). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/critphilrace.8.1-2.issue-1-2
Velez, E., & Tuana, N. (2020). Editors' Introduction: Tango Dancing with María Lugones. Critical Philosophy of Race, 8 (1-2), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.8.1-2.0001
Velez, E. D. (2020). Toward a “Care-ful Geopolitics” of La Frontera in the Era of Trump. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 34 (3), 339-352. https://doi.org/10.5325/jspecphil.34.3.0339
Velez, E. D., & Tuana, N. (2020). Toward Decolonial Feminisms: Tracing the Lineages of Decolonial Thinking through Latin American/Latinx Feminist Philosophy. Hypatia, 35 (3), 366-372. https://doi.org/10.1017/hyp.2020.26
Velez, E. D. (2019). Decolonial feminism at the intersection: A critical reflection on the relationship between decolonial feminism and intersectionality. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 33 (3), 390-406. https://doi.org/10.5325/jspecphil.33.3.0390
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