Laura Elisa Pérez, associate professor of ethnic studies, author, and the only Chicana scholar tenured in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Berkeley will present a lecture titled, “Undocumented Flower Crossings, Walking Altars, and Latina/o Art” on Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 12 p.m. in room 114 in Bird Library. For more information, contact Pedro J DiPietro at pjdipiet@syr.edu.

Presented by the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the lecture is cosponsored by the departments of Art and Music Histories and Religion, La Casita Cultural Center, Latino and Latin American Studies, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies, the LGBT Resource Center, and the Office of Cultural Engagement.

Timed to coincide with National Hispanic American Heritage Month, Pérez will discuss the role art plays in advancing social justice.

“Our department is honored to host such a prestigious scholar who has had such a prolific impact on ethnic studies,” says Vivian May, associate professor and chair of women’s and gender studies. “With such a broad portfolio of study and research expertise, Professor Pérez is ideally positioned to share with the Syracuse University community how art has led to social change across the globe.”

At Berkeley, Pérez is also a core faculty member of the doctoral program in performance studies, an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Women’s Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies, and former director of the Beatrice M. Bain Research Group on Gender. She is the author of the forthcoming Ero-Ideologies: Writings on Art, Spirituality and the Decolonial and Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities (Duke U P, 2007).

Pérez earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a master’s degree from The University of Chicago.