William Anthony Nericcio, aka Memo, is a Chicanoliterary theorist, cultural critic, American Literature scholar, and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. Currently Director of the program, he is the author of the award-winning ,The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works Plus, and Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for the Californias. Nericcio is also a graphic designer, creating book covers, film posters, and websites, most notably for SDSU Press and Hyperbole Books, where he oversees the production of cultural studies tomes. His Text-Mex Gallery blog investigates the pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes, political, and cultural issues. He is also the curator of the text-image exhibition entitled “MEXtasy,” which has been displayed at numerous institutions, including University of Michigan and South Texas College. Currently working on his follow-up book to Tex-Mex, Eyegiene: Permutations of Subjectivity in the Televisual Age of Sex and Race, his most recent publication is Talking #browntv: Latinas and Latinos on the Screen, co-authored with Frederick Luis Aldama, for the Ohio State University Press.
Life and education
William Anthony Nericcio was born in Laredo, Texas, but with ancestry that hails from General Téran and Monterrey, Mexico, Partanna, Sicily, and England, and considers himself post-Movimiento Chicano. Nericcio received his BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin in 1984, then went on to complete his doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from Cornell University in 1989, with a dissertation entitled The Politics of Solitude: Alienation in the Literatures of the Americas. Nericcio's dissertation director was Enrico Mario Santí—other members of his committee included Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Kathleen Newman. While at Cornell, Nericcio served as a graduate research and teaching assistant to Carlos Fuentes at the A.D. White House Society for the Humanities.
Academic career
After completing his doctoral degree in Comparative Literature at Cornell University, Nericcio accepted the position of Assistant Professor at University of Connecticut, before joining the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University. There, he served two years as the Chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature from August 2007 through October 2009, where he worked successfully to diversify the professoriate and the curriculum. He is now Director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program. He also serves on the faculties of the Chicana/o Studies Department, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Latin American Studies. His scholarship focuses on Chicano literature and film, Mexican-American cultural studies, continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, and global popular culture. Two of his books--The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works Plus, and Homer From Salinas: John Steinbeck's Enduring Voice for the Californias—were both published by SDSU Press's Hyperbole Books imprint. His most well-known book Tex-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America, deals with popular representation of Mexican and Mexican-American identity. It was named ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ 2007 by the American Library Association in the category of Film Studies.
The Hurt Business: Oliver Mayer's Early Works Plus a Portfolio of Plays, Essays, Interviews, Souvenirs, Ephemera, and Photography. San Diego, Hyperbole Books, 2008
Reviews of ''Text-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the Mexican in America''
Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Spring 2008.
"The Seductive Style of a Tex-Mex Cultural Critic." A Contra/Corriente. Fall 2007.
In addition to this academic career, Nericcio is also a graphic designer. His work includes book covers, film posters, and websites, most notably for SDSU Press and Hyperbole Books, where he oversees the production of cultural studies tomes. His Text-Mex Galleryblog investigates the pathological interrogation of Mexican, Latina/o, Chicana/o, "Hispanic," Mexican-American, and Latin American stereotypes, political, and cultural issues. In late 2010, Nericcio began a text-image exhibition entitled “MEXtasy,” which has been displayed at numerous institutions.
MEXtasy Exhibitions (Abridged Listing)
2020
The Mextasy exhibition, in addition to screenings of the Mextasy TV pilot, will be featured at the University of Detroit, Mercy, and the University of Michigan, March, 2020.
2019
The Mextasy exhibition will be featured from Sept 10 to October 30, 2019 at the
2018
, March 28, 2018, hosted by the Department of Spanish and Linguistics
2017
hosted by SDSU's Malcolm A. Love Library
2016
hosted by MEChA de Penn, Mex@Penn, & SHPE University of Arizona's Department of Spanish and Portuguese Annual Graduate and Professional Symposium on Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literature, Language and Culture at the Arizona Historical Society Museum and at the University of Arizona main campus
