Isabel Machado

Dr. Isabel Machado is a Lecturer at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (GRSJ) within the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. A cultural historian whose work crosses national and disciplinary boundaries, she specializes in Gender and Sexuality Studies and Festive Studies.

Her research focuses on the intersections of gender normativity, cultural celebrations, and social justice. Her first book, Carnival in Alabama: Marked Bodies and Invented Traditions in Mobile (University Press of Mississippi, 2023), uses Mardi Gras as a vehicle to understand social and cultural changes in Mobile, Alabama during the second half of the 20th century. By exposing systems of oppression reflected in and reinforced by celebrations while acknowledging their potential for resistance and joy among marginalized groups, her work dialogues with scholarship on joyful defiance or Critical Joy Studies.

She is currently conducting the ongoing oral history project 'Queens of the South(s)', interviewing performers who defy gender normativity globally while supporting efforts to create accessible queer community archives in collaboration with local artists, activists, and archivists. Her work has been published in Study the South, Oral History, O Olho da História, and the Journal of Festive Studies (where she serves as co-editor-in-chief). She is also a host for the New Books in Gender Studies podcast.

Her teaching portfolio includes multiple courses across Critical Studies in Sexuality, Introduction to Social Justice, and Intersectional Approaches to Thinking Gender, demonstrating her commitment to interdisciplinary education in gender, race, and sexuality studies.