Afro-Latinidad in the African Diaspora is part of the Black History Month Series ‘Black Experience in the Americas.’
With the onset of globalization and the consistent flow of people from Latin America to the United States, Afro-Latinx identity has gained visibility in public discourse. In turn, Black communities revisit the questions of the diaspora, race, and Latinidad in the Americas.
Dr. Will Guzmán, Dr. Jillian Báez, Dr. Adedamola Osinulu, and Dr. Donovan Ramon discussed the intersections and emergence of Afro-Latinidad in the U.S., Latin America, the complex meanings of identity and belonging in metropolises like New York City.
Dr. Will Guzmán is the Director of the Lee Hagan Africana Studies at New Jersey City University. The Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center promotes academic excellence and social responsibility among faculty, students and surrounding community about issues necessary to the empowerment of peoples across the African Diaspora. Dr. Guzmán’s research interests are African American history, Afro-Latinx history, Caribbean and Latin American history, and United States history. His book, Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism; won the Calvin Smith Book Prize. Previously, Dr. Guzmán served as an assistant professor in the Department of History and African American Studies at Florida A&M University and Director of the Office of Black Diasporan Culture at FAMU.
Dr. Donavan Ramon is a professor at Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies at Kentucky State University. A native of Harlem who is Jamaican and Honduran, his work focuses on racial passing.
Dr. Jillian Báez is an associate professor in The Department of Media Culture at The CUNY, College of Staten Island. She specializes in Latina/o media, audience studies, transnational feminisms, and media literacy. Dr. Báez is the General Editor of WSQ (formerly Women’s Studies Quarterly). Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation and Social Science Research Council. Prior to her appointment at the College of Staten Island, Dr. Báez was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Williams College.
Dr. Adedamola Osinulu is an assistant professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University where he investigates and teaches about African cultural production. His current research examines how Nigerian Pentecostals conceive of and make space on the outskirts of the city of Lagos. Osinulu earned his Ph.D. from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures and has held a fellowship with the Michigan Society of Fellows, University of Michigan.
The event was organized by Liberal Arts Professor Kaia Shivers and co-sponsored by The Latinx Project.