Biography
Emma Velez (she/they) is a settler Chicanx Okie, decolonial feminist, & transdisciplinary philosopher. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Velez is interested in the role that our social imaginaries play both in shaping and reimagining our ethical commitments, geopolitical responses to racialized and gendered colonial violence, as well as the politics of knowledge production. Centering the philosophical genealogies and embodied knowledge of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, their scholarship is rooted in storytelling and speculative theorizing and bridges conversations in philosophy, critical ethnic studies, and feminist theory. Velez is currently working on a book project titled, Orienting Historias: for a Decolonial Latinx Feminism, under contract with Duke University Press.
To learn more about Dr. Velez's work check out these interviews:
- Humanities Research Institute Inquiry Blog
- College of LAS 940 Feet
Research Interests
Emma Velez is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and affiliate faculty in Latina/Latino Studies, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory, CLACS, and Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Education
2020 Ph.D. in Philosophy & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Penn State University
2015 M.A. in Philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook
2013 B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, Oklahoma City University
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Assistant Professor, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory
Assistant Professor, Latina/Latino Studies
Assistant Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Recent Publications
Gallegos, L., & Velez, E. (2024). Self-Creation in Chicana Feminism. In K. Aho, M. Altman, & H. Pedersen (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism (pp. 129-142). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003247791-14
Velez, E. D. (2024). The Colonial Contract and the Coloniality of Gender: Decolonial Feminist Reflections on Charles Mills's Racia-Sexual Contract. Critical Philosophy of Race, 12(2), 366-381. https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.12.2.0366
Velez, E. (2022). Latina/o/x Feminist Philosophers. In I. Stavans (Ed.), Latino Studies (Oxford Bibliographies). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199913701-0270
Tuana, N., & Velez, E. D. (Eds.) (2020). Toward Decolonial Feminisms. Critical Philosophy of Race, 8(8-1). https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/critphilrace.8.1-2.issue-1-2
Velez, E., & Tuana, N. (2020). Tango Dancing with María Lugones: Toward Decolonial Feminisms. Critical Philosophy of Race, 8(1-2), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.5325/critphilrace.8.1-2.0001