Ramón E. Martínez (Ray)

Ray holds a diverse academic background encompassing Literature, Creative Writing, Theater and Performance and a Gender & Women Studies Minor. His research interests lies in the intersection of representation, gender and crossdressing within Literature, Theater and Latin American Cinema. He is currently pursuing his doctoral dissertation, which investigates the construction of the representation of the female crossdresser cemented in the Spanish Baroque, exploring how this figure is reflected in the works of authors and film makers of postcolonial Latin America and the Caribbean in the 20th & 21st centuries. Using the figures of Catalina/Antonio de Erauso and Henriette Faber as archeytpes, he explore the notion of the respresentation of la mujer varonil o la mujer varón as a social non-conforming and gender-bender trope and what is the functionality, importance and cultural effect in the spectatorship. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ray dedicated fourteen years to the theater and performance world in Puerto Rico, where his work concentrated on the investigation and exposure of non-normative bodies in performance spaces and their impact on gender performance.