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Personal bio
Gigi Otalvaro, Ph.D. is an educator, interdisciplinary performance artist-scholar, writer, and psychogeographer. As Associate Director of the Division of Health and Human Performance, she leads the LifeWorks program which offers courses and workshops that integrate scholarship, creative expression and embodied practices such as mindfulness and self-reflection to help students connect their academic work with their core values and goals. Her research and pedagogy engage Latina/x and women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, sexual commerce and performance, mindfulness-based art practice, as well as art and activism. Prior to her current position, she was a Teaching Fellow in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, where she taught research-based writing courses exploring the connections between visual art, performance, embodiment, and mindfulness. She obtained her doctorate of philosophy in Theater & Performance Studies with a minor in Art History from Stanford University. She holds a M.A. from California College of the Arts in Visual and Critical Studies and a B.A. from Brown University in an independent concentration entitled "Hybridity and Performance." She is the recipient of the first-ever Stanford Theater & Performance Studies Department Carl Weber Prize for Integration of Creative Practice and Scholarly Research for her doctoral work and dissertation entitled Erotic Resistance: Performance, Art, and Activism, in San Francisco Strip Clubs, 1960s-2010s. Her M.A. thesis, Embodying Spaces: Memory and Resistance in the Aftermath of Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983), focused on cultural memory, embodiment, and the politics of space in relation to human rights activism, public art, and memorials in the aftermath of the dictatorship. Her work in performance and video has been presented nationally and internationally. For her complete C.V. and samples of work, visit gigiotalvaro.com. Currently teaching
LIFE 121: Creative and Contemplative Movement: Intro to Qigong
(Spring)
LIFE 116: Psychedelics and Social Justice (Spring) PSYC 116: Psychedelics and Social Justice (Spring) PSYC 216: Psychedelics and Social Justice (Spring) LIFE 101: Tools for a Meaningful Life (Autumn) LIFE 99: Kinesthetic Delight: Movement and Meditation (Winter) WELLNESS 99: Kinesthetic Delight: Movement and Meditation (Winter) TAPS 99: Kinesthetic Delight: Movement and Meditation (Winter) WELLNESS 171: Laugh to Relax (Winter) LIFE 198: Directed Reading and Individual Studies - LifeWorks (Autumn, Winter, Spring) |