Decolonize Drag

Although imagined as a queer subcultural practice, drag seems to be everywhere we look: from AI filters on TikTok to brunchtime entertainment, from state legislations to political rallies. Yet as drag enters the mainstream—largely due to the intense, global popularity of reality TV competition RuPaul’s Drag Race—some kinds of gender-based performance fall out of the purview of what we (could) call drag. This talk, drawing from Khubchandani’s recent book Decolonize Drag, details the ways that gender is used as a form of colonial governance to eliminate various types of expression, and tracks how contemporary drag, including that on Drag Race, both replicates and disrupts these institutional hierarchies. The talk focuses on several gender performers that resist and laugh at colonial projects through their aesthetic practices. In this talk, Khubchandani argues for more abundance in and access to fashioning gender, and considers how drag changes meaning and efficacy as it shifts across geographies.

Kareem Khubchandani is the author of the award-winning Decolonize Drag and the multiple award-winning Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife. He is also co-editor of the Lambda Literary-nominated Queer Nightlife, guest editor of Text and Performance Quarterly’s “Critical Aunty Studies,” and associate editor for GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Kareem is Associate Professor of theater, dance, and performance studies at Tufts University and also performs as LaWhore Vagistan, everyone’s favorite overeducated, overopinionated, overdressed South Asian aunty.

Takeo Rivera is a specialist in performance studies, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, queer theory, and videogame studies in U.S. cultural production. His first book, Model Minority Masochism: Performing the Cultural Politics of Asian American Masculinity (Oxford University Press, 2022) explores the masochistic attachment to model minority ideology in Asian American theater, literature, graphic novels, historical archives, and video games. Dr. Rivera teaches courses in contemporary drama, performance studies, Asian American literature, queer theory, new media, racial capitalism, and critical ethnic studies. He is also a member of the core faculty of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Program, affiliate of the African American & Black Diaspora Studies Program and the American Studies Program, and currently serves as the faculty mentor of the Asian Student Union and the Untangle zine

Location: Howard Thurman Center (808 Commonwealth Ave Rm 104)

Co-sponsored by: The LGBTQIA+ Student Resource Center, LGBTQIA+ Center for Faculty & Staff