Marie Cruz Soto

Marie Cruz Soto is interested in imperial/colonial processes of becoming (i.e., in the creation and naturalization of coloniality), and in those struggles to un-become upon which survival sometimes hinges (i.e., in the imagining of a different world). She is particularly interested in the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and in how militarized colonialism has shaped the makings of the Viequense community. Her work explores how the long history of violent displacements and dispossessions in the island has ensured a vulnerable and unruly population. Her work consequently engages with the violence of militarized colonialism and with the proposals of anti-colonial and anti-militarism struggles. Cruz Soto is also a peace activist who has participated in Viequense community initiatives, in the organization New York Solidarity with Vieques and in transnational networks of solidarity against US military bases. As part of this work, she has, for example, given public lectures and participated as a petitioner in the United Nations Decolonization Hearings on Puerto Rico. At Gallatin, she teaches courses that delve into feminist and anti-colonial epistemologies, into the workings of the US Empire, into struggles to narrate the past and claim places, and into the formation of communities and the edification and transgression of boundaries.