Director
Dr. Christina Baker (she/her)
Email: tuo06955@temple.edu
Office: Mazur Hall 312
About Me
Starting Fall 2025, I am the Director of the Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT) and joining Theatre Journal as Co-Editor. My research focuses on performative acts of dissidence and resistance across contemporary Latin/x American geographies. With a particular emphasis on 21st century Mexico, my work explores how theatre and performance genres create opportunities for non-normative citizens to express socio-political critiques and reimagine definitions of belonging. My book, Sonic Strategies: Performing Mexico’s War on Drugs, Mourning, and Feminicide (Vanderbilt University Press, 2023) examines performances in times of crises and particularly, the way artists engage and leverage the sonic realm as a means of expressing the realities of Mexico since 2006. My articles have appeared in Romance Notes, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, and Latin American Theatre Review, among others. I earned my Ph.D. in Contemporary Latin American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015, and prior to joining Temple University, I was Assistant Professor at the University of Dayton and Visiting Assistant Professor at William & Mary.
Selected Publications
Book
- Sonic Strategies: Performing Mexico’s War on Drugs, Mourning, and Feminicide. Vanderbilt University Press, 2023. * 2024 Society for Ethnomusicology’s Marcia Herndon Book Prize Winner
Peer-reviewed Publications
- “Performing Trans “Monstrosity” and Non-binary Bodies in Cuentos de la Tumbona (2021) by Mariano Ruiz.” The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre, eds. Analola Santana and Michael Chemers. Routledge, 2024. 68-81.
- “Affective Acoustic Territories: Mapping and Performing Disappearance in Zona clausurada (2022) by Teatro Línea de Sombra.” Hispanic Review. 92.3 (Summer 2024): 427-452. https://doi.org/10.1353/hir.2024.a948077
- “Selena Quintanilla Memorial Sites: Enactments of Altered Temporality, Pedagogies of Postmemory, and Queer Latinx Love.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 49.1 (Spring 2024): 99-128. https://doi.org/10.1525/azt.2024.49.1.101
- “Reality TV, Poverty Porn, and the ‘Money Shot’: Performing Female Incarceration in Los caballeros las prefieren presas by Minerva Valenzuela.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 57.1 (Spring 2023): 3-28. 10.1353/rvs.2023.a901497
- “Santiago-Orlando: Performances of Queer Vulnerability and Futurity in the Work of (Me llamo) Sebastián.” Chasqui 49.1 (Spring 2020): 202-221. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27120845
- “Soundtrack of an (After) Life: Transfemicide, Mourning, and Pop Music in La Prietty Guoman by César Enríquez.” Latin American Theatre Review 53.2 (Spring 2020): 5-31. 10.1353/ltr.2020.0012
Associate Director
Robert Rabiee (he/him)
Email: robert.rabiee@temple.edu
Office: Mazur Hall 340
About Me
Robert Yusef Rabiee is a scholar and teacher of nineteenth-century U.S. literature and culture. He serves as Associate Director of the Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT). An Associate Professor of Instruction in Temple’s Intellectual Heritage Program, he teaches the humanities, political philosophy, and multiethnic American literature to undergraduates across disciplines. His first book, Medieval America: Feudalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Culture (University of Georgia Press, 2020), argues that feudal law and medieval literature shaped American ideas about race, class, and gender in the nineteenth century. His current project, Pestilential Stuff: Conspiracy and Crisis in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Culture, turns to how American culture has reckoned with economic decline and political crisis through the lens of conspiracy and secret societies. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, where there are lots of horses and relatively few other Iranians, Rob holds a B.A. in Individualized Study from New York University and Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern California. At CHAT, he works to build new bridges between faculty research and the undergraduate classroom and to celebrate undergraduate research excellence in the humanities and humanistic social sciences.
Senior Manager of Administration
Joseph DelMastro (he/him)
Email: joseph.delmastro@temple.edu
Office: Gladfelter Hall 509
About Me
Hello, I’m Joe (BBA ’07, Fox School of Business), and I’m the Senior Manager of Administration at Temple University, overseeing the Departments of Criminal Justice, Sociology, Anthropology, CHAT, and the Cybersecurity and Human Behavior program. As a proud Philadelphia native, I spent a decade in banking, working as a sales representative and assistant manager prior to returning to Temple. My background and experience have been an invaluable asset to the University, beginning with the Criminal Justice Training Programs and expanding my leadership across multiple departments. I use my deep institutional knowledge, and I commit to help sustain and strengthen the University’s academic community and help make CHAT the vibrant place that it is!
CHAT Cat
Clarice (she/they)
Email: chat@temple.edu
Office: Mazur Hall 312 Bookshelf
About Me
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Communications & Design Specialist
Oliver Lois Economidis (they/them)
Email: oliverloismedia@gmail.com
Office: Mazur 312
About Me
A recent Temple graduate with a degree in Communication Studies and certificate in Sports Media, CHAT has given me more than I could’ve ever asked for. As your favorite jack-of-all-trades, I’ve had the pleasure of creating promotional materials for the center (including pieces of this website), capturing moments from our events, building connections between the center and Klein College of Media and Communication, building videos and graphics to increase our social media following, and more. Outside of my work at CHAT, I love to read (currently reading “Seven Days In June” by Tia Williams), thrift, explore, spend time with my cats, take photos and videos, and watch the Phillies, Flyers, Eagles, and Bengals. Am I a proud Philly transplant/local (it’s complicated)? Yes. Am I also still a proud Ohioan? Also yes. This is also your reminder to drink some water + to remember you are enough as you are. Go birds.
Published Works
Short Films
- “Eight Decades” (2025): Finalist; DiamondQ; LGBTQ Film Festival
- “Philly’s Historic Laurel Hill East” (2025)
Other Highlights
- Accepted; “Building Student-Run Sports Agencies in Klein College”; 2026 Symposium for Undergraduate Research
- Recipient; 2025 Pennsylvania News Media Association Summer Newsroom Fellowship Program