Meet AJ Mata ’24

Tell us an interesting hobby, quality, or quirk of yours that may not be obvious to others.

Outside of school, I have been reading a couple of books. During winter break, I read Cynthia Franklin’s Narrating Humanity: Life Writing and Movement Politics from Palestine to Mauna Kea. I have also recently completed Elfriede Jelinek’s The Piano Teacher. I am currently reading Gayatri Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak. I have found that my philosophy courses, have not only provided me with knowledge of the philosophical foundations of these texts, but also helped me navigate through complex narratives and arguments. I often find it difficult to read just one book at a time and I enjoy switching between texts—even though sometimes they often get blurred with each other.

I have also taken up crocheting. While I was in Denmark, I saw a lot of people knitting. I tried to knit, but it was too difficult for me. So, I decided to learn crocheting. So far, I have crocheted two sophie scarfs. 

What drew you to the philosophy major?

I began my studies at USF as an International Studies student. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to do a double major. But, I was unsure what I wanted to do. During my first summer at USF, I took Professor Ashton’s Asian Philosophy course online and found myself enjoying the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist texts. I think that I was drawn into philosophy through the self-reflections that allowed me to see how philosophy can change the way I navigate the world. After I completed the class, I submitted a form to add an additional major. 

When I first began my studies at USF, I thought I wanted to enter law. I knew that philosophy would help me develop critical thinking and argumentation skills that would prepare me for law school. However, I quickly learned that law was not for me. Even though I am no longer interested in pursuing law, I feel that philosophy has definitely improved me in these areas. 

You completed an excellent honors thesis. Tell us briefly what you explored in this project.

During my last year at USF, I completed and presented a senior thesis in philosophy. The title of my thesis is “Parodic Attunement: Contesting Gender Categories through Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith and Butler’s Allegorical Usage of Drag”. In this paper, I worked with Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and Judith Butler’s ideas on performativity and subversion. The thesis ended up being a self-critique of my own past view that held that subversive acts and performances simply augment the power structures they oppose. By using Kierkegaard and Butler, I worked to see how the performances in Paris is Burning can challenge heteronormative structures and representations through a critical repetition of dominant gender norms. 

Picture in your mind a literal image of one of your favorite philosophers. What contemporary hairstyle would look cool on this person? And why? 

My favorite philosopher right now is Søren Kierkegaard and I think he would look really good with a buzzcut and bright pink dyed hair.

Imagine yourself the skipper of a boat that has capsized in the middle of the Pacific. You, Taylor Swift, and Stephen Curry are the only survivors, and there is only one life vest other than the one you are wearing. To whom do you give the extra life vest, and why?

I do not really know Stephen Curry that well, but I would give him the life vest because the world can do without Taylor Swift’s private jet flights.