Notable Achievements

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies Meagan Solomon published an article, “Beyond Sexual Deviance: Elevating the Expansive Intimacies of Chicana Lesbian Life in Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About” in the Journal of Lesbian Studies. In this article, she expands popular readings of Chicana lesbianism focused on sexuality by tending more deeply to the affective terrains of love and kinship represented in the 1991 anthology Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About,edited by Carla Trujillo. Countering the (il)logics of white supremacy and Chicano nationalism, which reduce Chicana lesbians to symbols of sexual deviance, she argues that Chicana Lesbiansembodies an expansive matrix of intimacies that reconstruct the Chicana lesbian figure from a one-dimensional symbol of sexual deviance to a multi-faceted figure who redefines what it means to love one’s people and culture beyond colonial paradigms that privilege heterosexuality. The article can be read here.

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Meagan Solomon

Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies

Expertise

Latina Lesbian Literature, Chicana Feminist Literature, Women of Color Feminisms, Queer and Lesbian Studies, Queer of Color Critique, Decolonial Feminist Theories

Dr. Meagan Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies at Southwestern University, where she also teaches courses in English, Race and Ethnicity Studies, and Latin American and Border Studies. Informed by her own lived experiences as a Chicana Jewish lesbian, her work centers on the lives and literature of queer, lesbian, and feminist Chicana/x/Latina/x writers. Specifically, her research investigates the transgressive power of queer intimacy in Chicana/x/Latina/x feminist and lesbian literature since the late twentieth century. More broadly, she researches and teaches women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, and decolonial feminist theories to introduce students to, or further immerse them in, critical frameworks for building a more just world beyond the classroom.

  • Biography

    Dr. Meagan Solomon is an Assistant Professor of Feminist Studies at Southwestern University, where she also teaches courses in English, Race and Ethnicity Studies, and Latin American and Border Studies. Informed by her own lived experiences as a Chicana Jewish lesbian, her work centers on the lives and literature of queer, lesbian, and feminist Chicana/x/Latina/x writers. Specifically, her research investigates the transgressive power of queer intimacy in Chicana/x/Latina/x feminist and lesbian literature since the late twentieth century. More broadly, she researches and teaches women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, and decolonial feminist theories to introduce students to, or further immerse them in, critical frameworks for building a more just world beyond the classroom.

  • Publications

    Peer-Reviewed Publications

    Solomon, Meagan. “Beyond Sexual Deviance: Elevating the Expansive Intimacies of Chicana Lesbian Life in Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About.” Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2023, pp. 1-14, doi: 10.1080/10894160.2023.2231706.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Ana Castillo: A Multi-Genre Author.” Chicana Portraits: Critical Biographies of Twelve Chicana Writers, edited by Norma E. Cantú, University of Arizona Press, 2023.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Homointimate Friendship and Queer Possibility in Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, vol. 21, no. 2, 2022, pp. 30-57.

    Book Reviews and Educational Resources

     Solomon, Meagan. “Ana Castillo.” Latino Literature: An Encyclopedia for Students, edited by Christina Soto van der Plas and Lacie Rae Buckwalter Cunningham, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023, pp. 57-59.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Gasca-Valenciano, Pauline.” Handbook of Texas Online, published by the Texas State Historical Association, 2021, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/gasca-valenciano-pauline.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Gender and Chicanidad Beyond Borders.” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, vol. 19, no. 2, 2020, pp. 174-177.

  • Presentations

    Conference Presentations

     Solomon, Meagan. “Reflections on Latina Lesbian Feminism from This Bridge to the Digital Dyke Age.” Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) Summer Institute. 2023. Davis, CA.

    Solomon, Meagan. “‘All About Love’ in Chicana Lesbian Literature.” Panel: “Queer and Trans Chicanx Politics.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference. 2022. Minneapolis, MN.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Queer Intimacy and Ethno-Racial Kinship in Terri de la Peña’s Margins and Latin Satins.” Panel: “Friendship and Intimacy.” American Literature Association Conference. 2022. Chicago, IL.

    Solomon, Meagan. “‘May we do work that matters’: A Call for Abolitionist Scholar-Teachers.” Panel: “Why Be Scholars? In Search of Consequential Actions for Consequential Times.” Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference. 2021. Virtual.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Down with the (Cis)tem: Envisioning Transfeminist Solidarity in the Twenty-First Century and Beyond.” Panel: “The Politics of Silence: Transforming Gender and Sexuality.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference. 2019. San Francisco, CA.

    Solomon, Meagan. “Homoromantic Resistance: Decolonizing the Borders of Friendship in The Mixquiahuala Letters.” Panel: “Women’s Friendships.” Society for the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference. 2018. Denver, CO.