PhD Oral Exam - Amanda Gutierrez, Humanities - Fine Arts

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

Public space, as a concept, implies a milieu that is open and accessible to the general population, the public. However, not everyone can express themselves or navigate urban environments with equal ease. Even in democratic societies with urban infrastructures designed to ensure accessibility and safety for all, urban streets can feel intimidating for those whose sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, race, class, age, disability, and gender render them socially vulnerable.  This thesis asks which political, cultural, and economic conditions must be in place to uphold the right to walk freely and without fear as a woman and an LGBTQ+2S individual in urban public spaces. It argues that a feminist decolonial soundwalking practice offers a critical perspective on those colonial and patriarchal ideologies that perpetuate gender violence in the urban milieu. I thus propose a series of methods that, taken together, can serve to constitute a decolonial soundwalking practice. These methods are derived from various individual and collective soundwalking projects, as well as from case studies situated in three Latin American cities, Cochabamba, Bolivia; Mexico City; and Bogotá, Colombia, as well as in two cities in North America: Montreal, Canada, and New York City, in the United States of America.