Publications
Trish’s Book
Transnational Testimonios: The Politics of Collective Knowledge Production
Decolonizing Feminisms Series, University of Washington Press
The activist storytelling practice of testimonio, long associated with Latin American struggles for justice, forges coalitions across social differences for the purpose of social change. Beyond Central and South America, Trish examines testimonios from a wide range of geopolitical sites, including Argentina, Egypt, Haiti, India, Jamaica, and Trinidad, as well as the United States, and suggests that feminist testimonios offer a model for cross-border feminist alliance building.
Transnational Testimonios focuses on the questions of translation, knowledge, and power that characterize the creation and reception of these life writings. Trish demonstrates how these stories can mobilize social activism and intervene in epistemological impasses between the Global North and South, offering vital tools for reimagining transnational feminist politics.
Reviews of Transnational Testimonios
DeRocher argues that the ‘story-based methodology’ employed by testimonios and the use of pathos creates a communicative bridge between text and reader that effectively mitigates apathetic or defensive responses by readers while negotiating the power differentials between differently socially placed readers. This approach breathes new life into comparativist and feminist global frameworks.
- Ariana Vigil, author of War Echoes: Gender and Militarization in U.S. Latina/o Cultural Production
DeRocher has sought out and woven together material of broad scope—both primary texts and critical sources—to construct her cogent and thought-provoking arguments. Transnational Testimonios is a strong contribution to a growing body of work that recognizes the global nature of testimonios.
- Kimberly Nance, author of Can Literature Promote Justice?
A ground-breaking book on grass-roots women’s activism in Latin America and the Global South. DeRocher masterfully addresses important philosophical issues of translation, knowledge, power, and political action, and positions herself at the forefront of a new generation of scholars who are producing cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research in transnational feminist theory, global critical theory, political epistemology, and theories of activism and social movements.
- José Medina, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University
Trish’s Articles & Book Chapters
“A Politics of Hope: Letters, Dance, and Dreams,” co-authored with Simi Kang and Richa Nagar in Dancing Transnational Feminisms: Ananya Dance Theatre and the Art of Social Justice, Decolonizing Feminisms Series, University of Washington Press (2021)
“Flower Songs and Moon Monologues: Pluralizing Desire in Mayotte Capecia’s I am a Martinican Woman,” in One Love: Writings on Caribbean History, Literature, Art, and Culture, edited by Irline Francois, Cambridge University Press (2018)
“Testimonios and Its Travelers: Feminist Deployments of a Genre in Action,” in Pushing the Boundaries of Latin American Testimony: Metamorphoses and Migrations, edited by Louise Detwiler & Janis Breckenridge, Palgrave Macmillan (2012)
“The Destabilization of Masculinity in A House for Mr. Biswas and The Mimic Men,” co-authored with Steph Ceraso in Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal (2009)
Book Reviews by Trish
The Politics of Documenting and Modeling Anti-Neoliberal Organizing Through Activist Film, Review of Atenco Lives: Filmmaking and Popular Struggle in Mexico by Livia K. Stone, in The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History (2020)
El Secreto Abierto: Charting Cariglobal Economies of (Queer) Desire, Review of The Queer Caribbean Speaks: Interviews with Writers, Artists, and Activists and Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination in SX Salon (2016)