Irvin Manuel Gonzalez

Irvin Manuel Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He holds a PhD in Critical Dance Studies from the University of California, Riverside (2021), and a BA in English from the same institution. His interdisciplinary work bridges scholarship, art, and community organizing, focusing on how marginalized communities navigate systemic oppression through creative practices.

Education:

• PhD in Critical Dance Studies, University of California, Riverside (2021)
• BA in English, University of California, Riverside

Research interests include:
- Analyzing Latin American social dancing as methodologies for social change
- Exploring prison abolition and migrant activism through embodied practices
- Investigating transborder belonging among working-class Latine communities
- Chicanx rasquachismo’s influence on artistic resistance

Key collaborations include:

• Primera Generación Dance Collective (founding member)
• Dancing Through Prison Walls Project
• Show Box Los Ángeles (board member)

Awards:

• National Endowment for the Arts Grant (via Primera Generación Dance Collective)
• Intention Foundry Fellowship (American Council of Learned Societies)

His artivist practice employs rasquachismo—a low-brow Chicanx aesthetic—to create community-engaged choreographies addressing Latine joy, loss, and systemic inequities. Notable presentations include performances at the Kennedy Center for the Arts (DC), Redcat (LA), and Critical Resistance (Oakland, CA).