Monkeys, Monsters, and Minstrels in Rise and Dawn of the Planet of The Apes
Susana Loza teaches cultural studies, critical race theory, film and media studies, popular music, feminist theory, and ethnic studies at Hampshire College in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Her most recent book, Speculative Imperialisms: Monstrosity and Masquerade in Postracial Times, explores the resurgence of ethnic simulation in science fiction and fantasy in a putatively post-colonial era. Her next project, Settler Colonial Gothic, excavates the (settler) colonial ideologies and gothic elements of contemporary US horror television and film.
Loza received her B.A. degrees in political science and psychology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. Her research interests include the social construction of race and sex in speculative media; power, privilege and cultural appropriation; gender and ethnic performativity in digital spaces; the politics of sampling and remixing; colonial cosplay in steampunk; the activist potential of social media; and the post-racial turn in popular culture.
A prolific writer, Loza’s writings include Vampires, Queers, and Other Monsters: Against the Homonormativity of True Blood, Hashtag Feminism, #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, and the Other #FemFuture, Samples of the Past: Performative Nostalgia, Illicit Sounds, and Cultural Transformation in Latin House Music, Sampling (Hetero)sexuality: Diva-ness and Discipline in Electronic Dance Music, and Orientalism and Film Noir: Subjective Sins and Othered Desires.”