Estef Calderón Villón is a PhD student in Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. Their work brings together Latin American and Latinx queer literature, visual arts, and performance to think about questions of identity, embodiment, and community.
Originally from Peru, Estef earned a Licenciatura in Linguistics and Literature at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú and an MA in Hispanic Language and Literatures at Boston University. At BU, they gained teaching experience in Spanish language and Latin American culture.
Estef explores dissident aesthetics and alternative modes of embodiment, resistance, and belonging in Latin America. They study how queer art and trans bodies challenge binary and colonial systems, often through the reappropriation of religious symbols and narratives. Their work asks how seemingly Catholic or colonizing images can be transformed into sources of queer resistance, spirituality, and collective imagination.
Publications
- “Ser libre y volar como un pollo”: La performance paródica queer de María T-ta como crítica social y reinversión subversiva. Crónicas de la Diversidad 34 & 35 (2023).
- “La Virgen Madeinusa de objeto fetiche a sujeto con agencia.” Crónicas de la Diversidad 35 (2023).
- “The erotics of play: An asexual reading of the poetic work of José María Eguren.” ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America (2023).