Overview
José Rafael Ponciano (they/them) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell University. Their research examines contemporary cultural production in Central America and its diasporas in the United States and Canada, with a particular focus on Guatemala.
Their academic work asks how kinship relations form and come to be sustained, especially under conditions of duress, instability, or crisis. This question brings together their interests in queer and kinship studies, affect theory, and masculinities, as well as their more recent turn towards posthumanism and hauntology.
Prior to attending Cornell University, they earned a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of Waterloo (Canada)—with minors in German; Cultural Identities; and Music—and an M.A. in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures from the University of Toronto (Canada).