Iris Viveros Avendaño (she her hers)

Dissertation: Feminista Dance Disruptions in Fandango Temporalities

Iris C. Viveros Avendaño, PhD.  was born and raised in Mexico. Her academic interests emphasize the integration of third-world feminist approaches to analyzing colonial legacies in present-day systems of violence. She focuses on the role of state-mediated technologies of power in perpetuating violence against Afroindigenous [descent] women and communities at large. In addition, Iris’ scholarly work focuses on the connection between polyrhythmic collective music-making as a decolonial temporality and a practice of resistance, recovery, and healing from trauma. A central focus in her scholarly work is the analysis of the feminized body in fandango–In its collective and individual manifestation– as a decolonial space where knowledge is produced, negotiated, and transmitted.  

A significant source of Iris’s academic and personal inspiration comes from her involvement as a bailadora/percussive dancer in the Seattle Fandango Project, a community dedicated to forging relationships and social activism through the participatory music, poetry, and dance of the state of Veracruz, where she grew up.