Emma Perez

Dr. Emma Perez is a Research Social Scientist at the Southwest Center and teaches in the Gender and Women's Studies department at the University of Arizona. She holds a PhD in History from UCLA and has held leadership roles as Chair in the Department of History at the University of Texas, El Paso (1990–2003), and Chair in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder (2003–2017). Her work focuses on decolonial theory, Chicana/o studies, queer studies, and borderlands narratives. She has authored influential books including The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (1999) and novels like Electra's Complex (2015), which explore intersectional identities and colonial legacies.

Her research spans decolonial methods, queer epistemologies, and the coloniality of feelings. Recent projects include The Will to Feel: Decolonial Methods, Queer and Otherwise and the dystopian novel I, Ben Espinoza, critiquing global inequities. Perez has received awards such as the Christopher Isherwood Writing Grant (2009) and the National Association for Chicana/Chicano Studies Book Award (2011).

Her academic contributions bridge literary and social science disciplines, emphasizing critical race theory, feminist historiography, and border studies. Perez’s work interrogates colonial histories, gender performativity, and the intersections of identity in marginalized communities.