Africa At Noon: Xavier Livermon

“Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Postapartheid South Africa”

Xavier Livermon

Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies, UT-Austin

BIO

Xavier Livermon is an Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Livermon’s research exists at the intersection of popular culture, gender, and sexuality in post-apartheid South Africa and the African Diaspora. His forthcoming book, ‘Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Postapartheid South Africa’ examines contemporary South African youth cultures as a series of performances enacted to test the limits of postapartheid possibility. His second project, tentatively entitled Queer(y)ing Freedom: Construction Black Queer Belonging in South Africa has resulted in a number of published essays in GLQ; Gender, Place, and Culture; and Feminist Studies and examines how black queer South Africans construct forms of cultural and national belonging in a climate where progressive constitutional rights do not always translate in quotidian practice. His research interests include African Cultural Studies, Black Popular Music, Black Performance, Black Queer Studies, HIV/AIDS and African Diaspora Studies.