"PhD candidate Robert Franco has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship for his project, Revolution in the Sheets: The Sexual Politics and Intimate Practices of the Mexican Left.
Issues of sex and sexuality have been in an uneasy, if not antagonistic, relationship with the revolutionary politics of the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) and other parties of the Marxist and nationalist left since their foundation. Rob's dissertation historicizes this enduring divide by examining scandalous explosions of homophobia and hostility towards sexuality among leftist political parties in Mexico throughout the twentieth century. By revealing how homophobia and heterosexism change over time and emerge at crucial moments in history, he argues that these moments of visceral intolerance cannot solely be explained through notions of plain conservatism or subconscious repugnance. Rather, the contingent, and often strategic, rejection of sexual politics encapsulated larger social anxieties and carried symbolic weight in the face of political upheaval. Furthermore, this hostility was related to the intimate practices in the Mexican Left, for the surveillance and policing of sexuality were constitutive of a broader set of debates about the relation of leftist militancy to private life, morality, and behavior.
Congrats, Rob!”
History
