Overview
Waleska Solorzano is a PhD candidate in Latin American Studies with two graduate minors in LGBT Studies and Media Studies. Her interdisciplinary research traverses questions of aesthetics, archival responsibilities, kinship, migration, and ontology. She bridges art history, comparative diaspora studies, queer of color critique, and Venezuelan studies, to examine how desires for belonging and the spatial dynamics of community-building proliferate within Venezuela and the diaspora through contemporary artistic practices, cultural productions, and nightlife cultures.
As a part of her dissertation project, Waleska is expanding the Venesporan Artists Project. This digital platform on CollectionBuilder serves as a directory of contemporary artists of Venezuelan descent living across countries in Europe, North America, and South America. She developed the project with funding from the Summer Graduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities and the Society for the Humanities.
Waleska received her MA in Philosophy, Ethics, and Public Affairs, along with a CERG in Women and Gender Studies from George Mason University. Her written work has appeared in Chasqui and Intervenxions.