José Muñoz Papers
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Abstract
José Muñoz (1967-2013) was a writer, scholar, and professor focused on performance studies, visual culture, queer theory, cultural studies, and critical theory. The José Muñoz Papers contain digital and paper files, and audiovisual material related to Muñoz's life and career as professor and chair of the Department of Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts during the 2000s-2010s. This collection contains NYU course-related files; resumes and biographical sketches; writing drafts and published articles; research/source files and recordings; conference and lecture panel planning material; photographs; college ephemera; and correspondence.
Biographical Note
José Esteban Muñoz (1967-2013) was a Cuban American academic in the fields of performance studies, visual culture, queer theory, cultural studies, and critical theory. He received both his undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College (1989) and his doctorate from Duke University (1994) in comparative literature.
Muñoz was a professor and chair of the Department of Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and wrote extensively on visual art and aesthetics. He was also the editor of the journals Social Text and Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory.
Muñoz's writing focused on the role of race within gay and lesbian studies as expressed in his first book Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (1999). A decade later, his second book Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (2009) was published.
Arrangement
Organized in two series:
Series I. Professional
Series II. Personal
The files within each series are arranged chronologically, with materials grouped by subject and arranged chronologically within.
Scope and Contents
The José Muñoz Papers (1970s-2014) contain materials related to the personal life and career of José Esteban Muñoz, a scholar and writer in the field of queer politics and aesthetics, as well as a professor and chair for the Department of Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. The collection contains digital and paper files documenting performance studies and queer theory as academic disciplines through Muñoz's NYU course material dating from the 2000s to mid-2010s. This collection not only illustrates relevant topics taught at a university during the 2000s, but also the scholarly works produced during this time through his drafts, proofs, and published articles. His writings discuss topics including queer performance artists of color and the role their art plays within their lives and community. Related academic conference and lecture programs and scripts are also in this collection. A large number of personal photographs within this collection, the majority of which are digital, illustrate the life of a young academic and professor living and working in New York. Photographic subjects include travel, friends, his dogs, arts events, parties, and selfies and portraits of Muñoz, taken during the late 1990s-2010s. Ephemera from his studies at Duke University in the 1990s include class papers and assigned readings, as well as event posters and fliers from film and performance events he was involved with as a student.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; José Muñoz Papers; MSS 429; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated in 2015 by Antonio and Elena Muñoz, followed by an accretion in October 2016 by NYU professor Ann Pellegrini. The accession numbers associated with this donation are 2015.429 and 2016.050.
Custodial History
The 2016 accretion materials were packed and removed from professor Ann Pellegrini's office.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Fales Library and Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures.
An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
Appraisal
The following were removed from the collection: 40 VHS, 6 DVDs, 2 audiocassettes, and 3 CDs (commercial, blank, damaged, or duplicate); 79 phonographic discs; Urkel doll; Keanu Reeves Matrix Action Figure; Polaroid camera; Political Asylum Game; ceramic Cuban flag artwork; 5 movie and exhibition posters; 3 college yearbooks, and 6 cartons of books and magazines. 130 born-digital carriers were also removed from the collection found to be blank, commercial, or damaged.
About this Guide
Processing Information
In November 2016, some of the materials were rehoused in acid-free folders and reboxed into record cartons. Rolled items were condensed and rehoused.
In 2023-2024, paper material was placed in acid-free folders and manuscript boxes. Oversized material was foldered and housed appropriately according to its size. The majority of the physical audiovisual material were identified as commercial recordings and were separated from the collection. The retained audiovisual material was numbered, labeled, and listed individually within their appropriate series inventory. One optical disc was retained in the collection as an ephemeral object. A file title containing harmfully derogatory language regarding Latino/a/x peoples was identified, but was retained to convey important contextual information regarding time and place in which the document and title was created.
Born-digital carriers containing data were forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged in Forensic Toolkit. The born-digital audio and video recordings were arranged separately in directories on locally-mounted networked storage and intellectually integrated into appropriate series.
New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
