Student Spotlight: Emily Bock

Emily R. Bock is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago whose research is situated at the intersection of critical race theory, black studies, queer theory, performance studies, and ethnographic methods/writing. Her dissertation, Ordinary Queens: the ball, the streets, and the beyond of survival, is an ethnographic investigation of the everyday lives of members of the underground ballroom scene in Chicago and New York which tracks the diverse aesethetic and performative practices this community has developed for imagining, performing, and securing the “good life.” Following members as they move between community centers, coffee shops, workshops and balls, Ordinary Queens argues that the performative practices one develops in the ballroom scene might be thought of as strategies for answering the question of “how ought we live” (in a way that is distinctly black and decidedly queer) and thus can be understood as pushing beyond notions of survival or repair.
 
The Chicago native holds a BA in Anthropology and Dance from Barnard College and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. Additional areas of interest include theories of the ordinary and everyday, gender and sexuality studies, media studies, and critical theory.