Eric J Disbro

Duke University, Romance Studies, Faculty Member

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Eric Disbro (he/they || il/iel) is Assistant Professor of Global Romance Studies at Duke University. His research examines contemporary francophone island literatures (Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Oceania), queer and trans theories of embodiment and care, decolonial theory, and maritime epistemologies.

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Sharae Deckard

University College Dublin

Andrea Peto

Central European University

John Clark

Loyola University New Orleans

Serpil Oppermann

Kapadokya Üniversitesi

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Itandehui Jansen

Edinburgh Napier University

Cheikh Thiam

Ohio State University

Stephen Whittle

Manchester Metropolitan University

Franco Barchiesi

Ohio State University

Francisco Vazquez-Garcia

Universidad de Cadiz

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Papers by Eric J Disbro

Triangulating Trans Tidalectics: Decolonizing Gendered Embodiment in Chantal Spitz's "Joséphine"

Women in French Studies, 2021

This article proposes a close reading of Chantal T. Spitz's short story "Joséphine" in tandem wit... more This article proposes a close reading of Chantal T. Spitz's short story "Joséphine" in tandem with an engagement with Polynesian orality and tattooing as both metaphors for bodily inscription and as integral to the socially-determined process of gendered identity formation. The author demonstrates how Mā'ohi non-binary gender embodiment is inherently relational and draws upon long histories of oral storytelling and cultural traditions of triangulation. These relational practices of narration, voice, and movement provide counternarratives to Western biomedical utilitarian theories of gender transition. In the short story, Western definitions of gender transition/reassignment and Mā'ohi notions of socially-determined and locally-rooted constellations of gendered self-actualization act simultaneously on the site of the protagonist's gendered body. By adapting Kamau Brathwaite's concept of tidalectics, the author suggests that these influences come together in aqueous rhythm in a "trans tidalectics" that disrupt the telos at the heart of Western gender transition, often historically determined by medical or surgical intervention.

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"Je n'avais pas deviné: Trans Reveal Narratives and Transpedagogies of Care in the Contemporary Francophone Literature Classroom"

The French Review, 2022

This article outlines a “transpedagogies” method for students to analyze “trans reveal” elements ... more This article outlines a “transpedagogies” method for students to analyze “trans reveal” elements in the conclusions of Francophone short stories. These stories, in which a main character’s gender identity is revealed to be non-cisgender, introduce major issues in trans studies, including care ethics, passing, and competing colonial/Indigenous gender roles. By reading and reflecting upon trans/non-binary stories and performances, students conceptualize and map an expansive definition of gender into new corners of the global Francophonie. The inclusion and contextualization of such texts in the classroom can make Francophone Studies more inclusive and relevant to today’s undergraduates.

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Loving Solidarities and the Mā'ohi Family: Queer and Trans Care in the Novels of Titaua Peu

Australian Journal of French Studies, 2024

What are the elements that make up "good" care? A care network only becomes enduring when it pays... more What are the elements that make up "good" care? A care network only becomes enduring when it pays due attention to the realities of burnout and the gendered, racial and classist dynamics that create an unequal distribution of care. Care networks among queer and trans folks often function without or beyond the foundation of the nuclear family. However, in her familial novels, Mutismes (2002) and Pina (2016), Mā'ohi author Titaua Peu offers intimate webs in which catalysts for a shared care ethos are based on practices cultivated by queer and trans characters. Focusing on these caring epistemologies, this article argues that Peu demonstrates the potential of such knowledges that appear in the margins between dominant perceptions of care work and those conceived of long ago by queer and trans communities in that they are didactic-emphasizing loving solidarities that sustain the contemporary Mā'ohi family.

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Intimités queers chez Ananda Devi: intermédiaires immortelles et osmoses charnelles dans Solstices et L'Ambassadeur triste

Interculturel Francophonies - "Oser (tout) dire: Ananda Devi ou de la condition de l'écriture ?", 2024

Suivant une approche comparatiste, mon argument prend pour premier objet d’étude la nouvelle « Le... more Suivant une approche comparatiste, mon argument prend pour premier objet d’étude la nouvelle « Les Immortelles » parue dans Solstices, en 1976. Si la nouvelle met en scène le lien intime entre la narratrice et des immortelles – ces fleurs qui poussent sur la tombe de sa mère et qui entraînent ultimement sa métamorphose en femme-fleur – je postule que cette transformation ne lui est possible qu’au zénith du plaisir corporel humain. Dans ce même ordre d’idées, j’examine par la suite la sensualité associée au personnage d’Hélène dans la nouvelle « Déesse », publiée en 2015 dans L’Ambassadeur triste, pour ce qu’elle révèle aussi du pouvoir transformateur du plaisir – le plaisir étant vécu par le personnage comme l’écho d’une volonté divine. De fait, dans « Déesse », Hélène visite avec sa mère la ville de Pondichéry et le temple de Kailasanatha en Inde. En accédant à l’intérieur du temple, la jeune femme se fait toutefois la représentation symbolique de Parvati, déesse ravagée par le manque et rongée par la honte à l’égard du dieu Shiva. Ainsi, le corps d’Hélène sert, dans le texte, d’intermédiaire entre l’expression d’une sexualité féminine en quête d’elle-même et la vengeance divine de Parvati, déesse mûre et féconde. En examinant le choix de Devi de mettre en scène respectivement la métamorphose de la narratrice en immortelle et les transformations d’Hélène, je propose d’étudier en quoi Devi élargit la notion d’intimité queer pour y associer, au-delà de l’humain, des univers tantôt naturels, tantôt mystiques, tantôt encore spirituels.

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Loving Solidarities and the Mā'ohi Family: Queer and Trans Care in the Novels of Titaua Peu

Australian journal of French studies, 2024

What are the elements that make up &quot;good&quot; care? A care network only becomes end... more What are the elements that make up &quot;good&quot; care? A care network only becomes enduring when it pays due attention to the realities of burnout and the gendered, racial and classist dynamics that create an unequal distribution of care. Care networks among queer and trans folks often function without or beyond the foundation of the nuclear family. However, in her familial novels, Mutismes (2002) and Pina (2016), Mā&#39;ohi author Titaua Peu offers intimate webs in which catalysts for a shared care ethos are based on practices cultivated by queer and trans characters. Focusing on these caring epistemologies, this article argues that Peu demonstrates the potential of such knowledges that appear in the margins between dominant perceptions of care work and those conceived of long ago by queer and trans communities in that they are didactic-emphasizing loving solidarities that sustain the contemporary Mā&#39;ohi family.

“Je n’avais pas deviné”: Trans Reveal Narratives and Transpedagogies of Care in the Contemporary Francophone Literature Classroom

French Review, Dec 1, 2022

Triangulating Trans Tidalectics: Decolonizing gendered Embodiment in Chantal Spitz'S "Joséphine

Women in French Studies, 2021

This article proposes a close reading of Chantal T. Spitz&#39;s short story &quot;Joséphi... more This article proposes a close reading of Chantal T. Spitz&#39;s short story &quot;Joséphine&quot; in tandem with an engagement with Polynesian orality and tattooing as both metaphors for bodily inscription and as integral to the socially-determined process of gendered identity formation. The author demonstrates how Mā&#39;ohi non-binary gender embodiment is inherently relational and draws upon long histories of oral storytelling and cultural traditions of triangulation. These relational practices of narration, voice, and movement provide counternarratives to Western biomedical utilitarian theories of gender transition. In the short story, Western definitions of gender transition/reassignment and Mā&#39;ohi notions of socially-determined and locally-rooted constellations of gendered self-actualization act simultaneously on the site of the protagonist&#39;s gendered body. By adapting Kamau Brathwaite&#39;s concept of tidalectics, the author suggests that these influences come together in aqueous rhythm in a &quot;trans tidalectics&quot; that disrupt the telos at the heart of Western gender transition, often historically determined by medical or surgical intervention.

Creole World-Making: Conversations with Djuneid Dulloo and Alexis Peskine

by Eric J Disbro and Abigail E Celis

ASAP/Journal

“Je n’avais pas deviné”: Trans Reveal Narratives and Transpedagogies of Care in the Contemporary Francophone Literature Classroom

French Review, Dec 1, 2022

A&Q I: Weaving as "Eternal Penelopes": Queerness and Intimate Ecologies in an Interview with Ananda Devi

Verge: Studies in Global Asias

Creole World-Making: Conversations with Djuneid Dulloo and Alexis Peskine

by Eric J Disbro and Djuneid Dulloo

ASAP/Journal, 2022

hosted a public conversation between two francophone artists, DJUNEID DULLOO and ALEXIS PESKINE, ... more hosted a public conversation between two francophone artists, DJUNEID DULLOO and ALEXIS PESKINE, on the theme of creolizing practices and transnational belonging. Both mixed media artists with African origins and peripatetic journeys, DULLOO and PESKINE are uniquely positioned to reflect on the confluence of geographic spaces, intergenerational transmission, and cultural cosmologies that shape the work of many Afro-diasporic artists. The rich conversation that took place stayed on our minds and we met again the following year, this time via Zoom, for individual follow-up interviews to pick up the threads that had emerged in the previous conversation but that the limited format of a public conversation did not allow us to pursue. The interview published here is a compilation of excerpts from those three conversations, edited for clarity, where the driving focus is an exploration of how the embodied contexts of DULLOO'S and PESKINE'S artistic practices inform and inflect their conceptual and creative exploration. While aesthetically distinct, Dulloo's and Peskine's approaches to artmaking resonate in their commitment to mixing media and techniques, combining vernacular craft practices with fine arts ones. They also share a commitment to collaboration, bringing friends and family into their crafting processes and broadening their own practice by contributing to others' design, film, and music projects. Their avid curiosity for how others make "art," in the broadest terms

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