Christopher Gonzalez is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English at The Ohio State University. Chris grew up in west Texas, and states that the US/Mexico border never factored into his identity. As a result, his own worldview was never (and still is not) border-centric. In his fiction, he tends to focus less on movement across a border and more on an infusionist mindset which treats how Latinos are infused with non-Latino culture and vice versa. This infusion may manifest in religions, foods, and other cultural practices. In his scholarly work, he specializes in understanding how various narrative forms, and especially those narratives created by Latinos, impact and influence readers in significant ways. At the heart of his interests is how people can be cognitively and emotionally moved through willful expressions of storytelling in a variety of media. His dissertation traces the development of Latino literature in the United States by investigating the relationship between authorial decisions related to the creation of narrative storyworlds and reader expectations that enable or constrain such authorial decisions. Christopher’s recent scholarly work has investigated representations of Afrolatinidad, as well as what he calls a “mechanized consciousness,” the adoption of a machine-like mentality by America’s migrant labor force. In addition to being the editor of ¿Qué Pasa, OSU?, Christopher also serves as the managing editor of Philip Roth Studies, a peer-reviewed semiannual journal devoted to the works of the American author Philip Roth. Christopher has been honored with the “Award for Excellence in Teaching by a First-Year GTA” as well as the Graduate Achievement in Latino/a Studies (GALAS) award for the Outstanding Academic Paper written on the subject of Latino Studies by a graduate student at OSU. Christopher proudly serves as a mentor for OSU’s LASER program (Latino and Latin American Space for Enrichment and Research), where he facilitates undergraduates who are transitioning to graduate school. He is also the current Graduate Representative for the MELUS society (The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States).
Established in 1994 as a joint effort between the University-wide Council of Hispanic Organizations (UCHO) and the Hispanic Oversight Committee (HOC) at The Ohio State University, ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? helps fulfill the Hispanic Action Plan’s goal to expand significantly the information and opportunities for dialogue among all students and faculty regarding Hispanic issues across the disciplines. Published semiannually (along with a summer graduation special issue), ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? showcases the important work happening in the Latino community at OSU in the form of research essays, event reports, creative works of poetry and fiction, recognition of the professional achievements of alumni, faculty and student profiles, and food reviews. Each regular issue of ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? takes as its mission to answer the question posed in the magazine’s title.