Research

Current Research Projects

Dissertation: Epistemologies of the Baño: Bath Space, Affective Occupation and Public Sex(ualities) in Contemporary Queer Mexican Narrative

Description: In the dissertation, I employ a cultural studies approach to examine the relationship between bath space and practices of gender and sexuality in 21st century queer Mexican narrative. To do this, I argue for a new critical framework that borrows the concept of desire paths from architectural studies as a novel way of understanding the way(s) that space is occupied by practices of sexual dissidence. Objects of study in Epistemologies of the Baño include Ana Clavel's 2005 novel Cuerpo náufrago; contemporary bathhouse film; and the podcast CUIR: Historias disidentes. I am currently working on a book-length project based on my dissertation.

Cuir Coasts

Description: My second research project moves away from the baño and instead sheds critical light on the representation of beaches and port cities (playas y puertos) in contemporary Mexican narrative. On one hand, this project examines the narrative and aesthetic use of coastal space as a site of (queer) possibility; the work of Fernando Yacamán, Ernesto Contreras’ Sueño en otro idioma (2017), and Fernanda Melchor’s Temporada de huracanes are indicative of this queer possibility. On the other hand, this project importantly analyzes the trope of the beach trip that is ingrained in the Mexican cultural imaginary. Whereas the city is represented as suppressive and rigid with schedules and routines required of its inhabitants, the beach allots a sense of freedom and transformation. Those who take part in this epistemological journey are fundamentally changed in the process, as best demonstrated in María Navarro’s Danzón (1991) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también (2001). In these narratives, too, there is a queer(ing) possibility that only comes to the fore through the journey to the coast.

Publications

Conference Presentations

Peer-Reviewed

Hansen, Koby Bryan. "Difficult Traces to Erase: Audiovisual Projects Remembering the Stroessner Dictatorship." Setting the Scene: Critical Perspectives in Documentary Film in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Christopher Ballengee. University Press of Mississippi, 2026. pg. 103-116.

Hansen, Koby Bryan. “Graphic Ghosts: Reimagining Urban Violence in Augusto Mora’s Los fantasmas de mi ciudad.” Supernatural Cities: Placing Urban Identities, Memory, and Cultural Crises, special issue of Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural, edited by Rachael Ironside & Alicia Edwards, 2024. Pp. 121-136. https://www.revenantjournal.com/contents/graphic-ghosts-reimagining-urban-violence-in-augusto-moras-los-fantasmas-de-mi-ciudad/

2026

“La petite mort: la espiritualidad, la sexualidad y lo moribundo en Con R de Reality de Luis Zapata.” XVI Annual Graduate Student Conference, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, April 2026

“Film, Bathrooms, and the (Queer) Politics of Filth.” Popular Culture Association National Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 2026

Forthcoming

Soria, Ricardo and Koby Bryan Hansen. “Chacal.” Diccionario de Intraducibles: Género, sexualidad, sexodisidencias y feminismos en América Latina y el Caribe, edited by Moira Fradigner et al.

2025

“Caminos del deseo: Cruising como marco teórico para la narrativa mexicana siglo XXI.” Congreso Nuevas rutas y canon, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Azcapotzalco, Mexico City, MX, October 2025

“Bodies that Dance, Bodies that Desire: Erotics and Dance in Julián Hernández’s Films.” Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 2025

“Escuchar al baño: Bathroom Narratives and the Auditory in CUIR: Historias disidentes.” XXIX Annual Juan Bruce-Novoa Mexican Studies Conference, Irvine, CA, May 2025

“In the Steam: Polyphonic Narrative and Democratic Space in Mexican Bathhouse Film.” XV Annual Graduate Student Conference, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, April 2025

"Meet me in the Metro: Cruising and Public Transportation in 21st Century Mexican Cultural Production." Modern Language Association (MLA), New Orleans, LA, January 2025

Under Review

Hansen, Koby Bryan. "'Y sin embargo...': Heteropessimism and the Work of Rosario Castellanos." Romance Notes.

2024

"The Anton/Antonia Problem and the Homoerotic in Ana Clavel's Shipwrecked Body." Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association (PAMLA), Palm Springs, CA, November 2024

"Con el culo: Sexual Dissidence and Anal Politics in Three Acts." Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Bogotá, Colombia, June 2024

"Sex(y) Education: The Informative and the Pornographic in Hermes and Anal Magazine." With and Beyond the Impasse: XIV Annual Graduate Student Conference, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, April 2024

"'De México la mejor revista gay': HIV/AIDS Education and Erotics as Queer Care in Hermes." XXVIII Annual Juan Bruce-Novoa Mexican Studies Conference, Irvine, CA, April 2024

"La más mexicana: Subverting or Reifying Mexicanidad in Drag Race México and La Más Draga?" Popular Culture Association National Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2024

"Chacales, Cristo and Everything In-Between: A Look at Valerio Gámez's Art." Queer and Trans Studies in Religion, Riverside, CA, February 2024

"Epistemología del baño: cruising y ocupación afectiva en la narrativa reciente." Primer Congreso de Estudios Humanísticos, Universidad Modelo, Mérida, México, February 2024

2023

"'Y sin embargo...': Heteropesimismo, transfeminismo y la escritura de Rosario Castellanos." Feminismos hoy: XIX Symposium of the International Association of Women Philosophers, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 2023

"Graphic Mexico: Violence and Youth Resistance in Augusto Mora's Graphic Novels." Popular Cultural Association National Conference, San Antonio, TX, April 2023

"Subversiones selváticas: la muerte y la sexualidad en Selva trágica y Sueño en otro idioma." Beyond (Un)natural Crises, Disasters, and Catastrophes: Ecologies of Care and "Other" Worlds-in-making, Graduate Student Conference, Merced, CA, March 2023

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