Invitation to the Defense of Mariel Rodríguez

The Examination Panel is made up of: Univ.-Prof. PhD. M.A. Alena Williams (chair), Prof. Dr. Ruth Sonderegger (supervisor 1), Prof. Dr. Gudrun Rath (external appraiser, University of Arts Linz).

The defense will take place online via zoom. 

Zoom link: https://akbild-ac-at.zoom.us/j/66899808772?pwd=2grsXgoymwXKS0pTG6GHGa6rqLsuOy.1

Abstract

This dissertation examines how race and gender have been produced and negotiated through visual culture in Mexico by tracing the historical transformations of mestizaje as a political, cultural, and visual project. Rather than treating mestizaje as a fixed national ideology, it approaches it as a historically contingent process whose meanings have continuously shifted in response to changing social, political, and epistemic contexts. Drawing on critical race theory, feminist theory, decolonial thought, art history, and visual culture studies, the dissertation asks how visual representations have contributed to the production of racialized and gendered identities while simultaneously obscuring the persistence of racism within the Mexican national imaginary. 
The dissertation is organized around three case studies that correspond to three historical moments in which mestizaje and the meaning of the mestizo/a/e are reformulated. The first chapter examines the colonial period through the visual regime of eighteenth-century casta paintings, situating the emergence of racial classification within the intertwined histories of colonialism, primitive accumulation, heteropatriarchy, and the development of whiteness. The second chapter looks at the transformation of mestizaje from a racialist category into a dominant ideology during the post-revolutionary period of nation formation in Mexico, as seen through the photographs surrounding the India Bonita beauty contest. Finally, the third chapter turns to contemporary feminist and decolonial thought, exploring Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of the New Mestiza as a critical reconfiguration of identity that challenges the homogenizing logic of mestizaje as a national ideology and reconfigures it into a radically inclusive concept.
The case studies span the colonial, modern, and contemporary periods to trace the recurring figure of the "Indigenous woman" in national discourse. The dissertation understands this figure as a historically produced label that has been continuously redefined and instrumentalized to different ends. By tracing these successive reformulations, the dissertation demonstrates how representations of the "Indigenous woman" have functioned as privileged sites for negotiating race, gender, and national belonging, while revealing the changing operations of mestizaje across Mexican history.

Short bio

Mariel Rodríguez is an artist, researcher, and educator working at the intersections of visual culture, critical race theory, gender studies, and decolonial thought. She holds a BA in Humanities from Universidad de las Américas Puebla and an MA in Critical Studies from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where she is completing her PhD in Philosophy. Her research and artistic practice move between academic inquiry, visual culture, and autotheoretical approaches. She has taught at the University of Arts and Design Linz and the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and has participated in exhibitions, publications, and collaborative artistic projects in Austria and Mexico. She is also co-editor of Standpoint Autotheory:Writing Embodied Experiences and Relational Artistic Practices (Sternberg Press, 2025) and of Umwege / Detours: Künstlerische Wissenspraktiken als dekoloniale Strategien (ART-Books / Heidelberg University Library, 2025)