Colloquium Series: Jun Lei & Leslie Torres 3/24/26
Managed Transgression: Sexual Scandal and the Digital Carnivalesque in Chinese Manosphere
"Can’t Keep Good Girls Down": Tejana Feminist Action in the Early 20th Century Borderlands.
Jun Lei, Associate Professor | Global Languages & Cultures
Abstract:
I conceptualize managed transgression to explain how digital platforms channel irreverent participation into disciplinary outcomes. Analyzing two viral sexual scandals on China’s Hupu, China’s largest online sports and gaming hub, I show how memes function as conversion infrastructure, turning transgressive consumption into credential, shaming into pleasure, and grievance into portable templates that produce boundary-policing spectacles experienced as carnival.
Leslie Torres, Ph.D. Student | History
Abstract:
In this presentation, I will discuss the intersectional causes that Mexican American pursued in early twentieth century Texas. These Tejanas dedicated their time and funds to organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Pan American Round Tables of Texas. Within these intraethnic, male-dominated organizations or interethnic women’s clubs, Tejanas exercised fluid positionality that allowed them to move in and out of each group and broadly organize against intersecting oppressions that plagued Mexican Americans across Texas.
The Colloquium Series offers Glasscock Center Fellows an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.
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