CIE Researcher of Distinction, March 2023
Carlos Vazquez
Each month, the Center for Inclusive Education showcases the outstanding research being conducted by one of our talented scholars in our Research Café series. In addition, we recognize this scholar as a Researcher of Distinction and share the details of his/her journey to becoming an accomplished scholar. This month's Researcher of Distinction is Carlos Vazquez Ph.D., Women's, Gender and Sex Studies. Carlos presented their work, ‘After the Last Word: Writing, Racism, and Disability on HBO’s The Last of Us’ on Thursday, April 11, 2023.
CARLOS'S PATH INTO RESEARCH
Originally my plan was to become an academic advisor in order to support the needs of Black and brown college students. So I went for my MSEd in Higher Education Administration at Baruch’s School of Public Affairs. My professors at Baruch ended up strongly encouraging me to continue my studies rather than go into academic advising, which, in their view, has become too administrative a field for someone like me, whose strengths lie more so in performing close textual analyses, engaging different approaches to critical pedagogy, and taking up admittedly at-times abstract theoretical knowledges. All of which led me to pursue a doctoral degree in the interdisciplinary field of Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
CARLOS's Current Research
Describe the work you presented for your Research Café.
For the CIE’s Research Café, I analyze the way writing, racism, and disability end
up intersecting with one another in powerful ways in the hit HBO series The Last of
Us.
What was the deciding factor for you to come to Stony Brook for your graduate studies?
The chance to work with Professor Lisa Diedrich is what got me here; Lisa’s guidance and unwavering support throughout the years, along with that of my other two amazing dissertation committee members, Professors Pam Block and Jeffrey Santa Anna, are what have kept me here.
Are there any other projects, beyond your Research Café work, that you are currently
working on?
Yes: my Research Cafe talk is based on a dissertation chapter I’m writing; I’m working on multiple chapters at once, as well as teaching an upper level class on racism and disability, while also applying for funding for next year . . .
What are your future goals?
To secure a tenure track teaching job at a university committed to anticolonization, racial equity, and justice
What do you enjoy most about research?
The late, great bell hooks famously stated that, and I paraphrase, “popular culture is where the learning is at, it’s where the pedagogy’s at.” I take hooks’ insight seriously, and so in my work, I try to think as deeply, as critically, and as complexly as possible about the lessons we can learn through the close study of well known works of “expressive culture” (tv, film, photography, literature, social media, advertising), especially those works that prominently feature Black and Latinx bodyminds. So long story short, the best part about my research is that I get to watch lots of contemporary television and film and the like.