Contact

1309H Cathedral of Learning
dmt74@pitt.edu

Biography

A transdisciplinary scholar at the interstice of Latinx Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Feminist Theory, and Queer and Trans of Color Critique, Dr. David Tenorio (he/them) is a queer Latinx scholar, teacher, and activist examining hemispheric queer and trans cultures, particularly in Mexico, Cuba, and Latinx U.S.

Dr. Tenorio’s current book project, Queer Nightscapes: Affective Infrastructures and the Afterglow of Queer Mexicanidad, examines how queer and trans cultural practices of relajo (playfulness), dancing, cruising, and longing shape the material infrastructures of queer and trans worldmaking. Drawing from the fields of performance and media studies, critical infrastructure studies, new feminist materialisms, and trans of color critique, the book argues that queer modes of sensing disorientate neocapitalist commodification and neoliberal extraction. Queer Nightscapes considers how affective networks transform queer and trans modes of perception, affection, and consumption in racialized “gay-friendly” spaces in urban Mexico and the U.S. In doing so, this book project traces alternative modes of consumption and affective networks of joy and care amidst capitalist gentrification in the Americas. Dr. Tenorio is also working on two additional research projects, namely an edited volume in collaboration with queer AfroCuban writer Alberto Abreu on queer and trans genealogies in AfroCuban and Afrodiasporic studies, as well as a second book project on trans hemispheric migration into the U.S.

Dr. Tenorio has been involved in various digital humanities projects (www.sexualidadescampesinas.ucdavis.edu; www.queerutopias.org), and has served as member of the Editorial Board for the University of California-Davis’s Interdisciplinary Journal on Latin American Studies, Brújula (www.brujula.ucdavis.edu). He has been the recipient of various grants and awards, including the Bejel-Gibbs Graduate Award, the Humanities Program Fellowship, the Humanities Arts & Cultural Studies Dean’s Fellowship, the UC-CUBA Travel and Research Grant, the Mellon Public Scholar Fellowship, the Professor of the Future Program Fellowship, the UC-MEXUS Research Grant, and the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection Conference Award, the 2020-2020 Faculty Fellowship in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, among others. He has served as an Editorial Team Member for the Caribbean Studies Association, and as Co-Chair of the LASA Sexualities Section. Currently, he is member of the Executive Committee to the MLA Forum on Cuban and Cuban Diasporic Studies.

Degrees

• PhD, Latin American and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures, University of California, Davis
• MA, Spanish Language and Literature, Queen's University
• BA, Hispanic Studies and Psychology, York University

Selected Publications

Areas of Specialization