Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Working Group
The Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean working group, or BLAC, was co-founded in 2017 by Dr. John Mundell and Dr. Nicole Ramsey during their doctoral program in African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. BLAC began with a grant from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Berkeley and has since become its own multi-institutional working group, represented by the diversity of its members and their scholarship. Since BLAC began, it has brought together junior scholars in interdisciplinary and disciplinary fields from across the U.S. to collaborate on research and teaching, organize events and panels, and present and workshop writing in progress. See below a list of our current members and videos from our AfroLatinx Voices series in 2020-2021.
Current BLAC Members
John A. Mundell, Ph.D.
Director and co-founder, Postdoctoral Fellow in African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis
Ph.D. in African American and African Diaspora Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, University of California, Berkeley
Nicole D. Ramsey, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Assistant Professor of Mexican American and Latino Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. in African American and African Diaspora Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality, University of California, Berkeley
Website link here
Andreína Soto Segura, Ph.D.
Associate Director for the Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective at Yale University
Ph.D. in History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Website link here
Ashley Ngozi Agbasoga, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University
Ph.D. in Anthropology, Northwestern University
Website link here
C. Darius Gordon, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Africana Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Ph.D. in Critical Studies of Race, Class, & Gender, School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
Cassie Osei, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of History, Bucknell University
Ph.D. in History, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Website link here
Génesis Lara, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California-Irvine
Ph.D. in History with a Designated Emphasis in African Diaspora Studies
Jamie Lee Andreson, Ph.D.
Assistant Teaching Professor of History and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, and Postdoctoral Research Associate, Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean, City University of New York Graduate Center
Ph.D. in Anthropology and History, University of Michigan
Website link here
Kaché Claytor, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, University of Virginia
Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Vanessa Castañeda, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Africana and Latin American Studies, Davidson College
Ph.D. in Latin American Studies, Tulane University
Website link here
Black Women's History
Black Brazil
Black Central America
Black Foodways
Mesitzaje
Black Internationalism
Afro-diasporic Religions
Black Queer Studies
Critical Whiteness
Imperialism
Settler Colonialism
Black Indigeneity
Mothers & Matriarchy
Black Cultural Heritage
Black Feminisms
Revolution & Postcolonialism
Race, Gender & Labor
Migration
Racial Democracy
Black Popular Culture
Film & Media
Black Andes
Colonial Latin America
Black Social Movements
Slavery and Its Afterlives
Censuses & Citizenship
Black Women's History Black Brazil Black Central America Black Foodways Mesitzaje Black Internationalism Afro-diasporic Religions Black Queer Studies Critical Whiteness Imperialism Settler Colonialism Black Indigeneity Mothers & Matriarchy Black Cultural Heritage Black Feminisms Revolution & Postcolonialism Race, Gender & Labor Migration Racial Democracy Black Popular Culture Film & Media Black Andes Colonial Latin America Black Social Movements Slavery and Its Afterlives Censuses & Citizenship
Interested in joining BLAC?
We are accepting new members! We are open to junior scholars, post-Ph.D. candidacy and pre-tenure, from all fields who are looking for a community to share work on blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean and to network with new colleagues and friends. Please go to the Contact page in the menu above and send a message.
AfroLatinx Voices
In 2020 and 2021, BLAC launched a four-part webinar series featuring black scholars, writers, and activists from Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States to speak about their work. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black Americans by police violence, AfroLatinx Voices provided a space for our guests to expand on how anti-blackness goes well beyond the United States and is deeply rooted in the histories, social issues, and cultural production of Latin America and the Caribbean. At the same time, this series was a joyful one, for BLAC, our speakers, and our audience at an isolating and particularly violent, deadly time in global society. Where critical thought and vulnerability interesected in the series, our community expanded to one united in struggle and also joy.
To view the series on YouTube, click on the poster images below. You can read more about the AfroLatinx Voices series in the Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies spring 2021 issue here.
Episode 1 — Writing Black Caribbean Women: A Conversation, featuring Afro-Puerto Rican poet and young adult author Aya de León and Jamaican fiction writer Nicole Dennis-Benn. Moderated by BLAC member and co-founder, Dr. Nicole Ramsey. October 23, 2020.
Episode 2 — Transnational Black Feminisms and Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean, featuring Afro-Cuban feminist activist Tito Mitjans Alayón, Black Brazilian feminist and author Djamila Ribeiro, and Black Costa Rican human and ethnic rights activist Laura Hall. Moderated by BLAC member, Dr. Ashley Ngozi Agbasoga. December 3, 2020.
Episode 3 — Re-writing Black Religions in the Atlantic World: A Conversation, featuring Afro-Colombian historian Andrea Guerrero-Mosquera. Moderated by BLAC member, Dr. Andreina Soto. Conversation originally in Spanish, with English subtitles. February 25, 2021. (Video currently unavailable.)
Episode 4 — No Longer a Racial Democracy: Critical Whiteness in Latin America and the Caribbean, featuring Patricia de Santana Pinho, Isar Godreau, and Erika Denise Edwards. Moderated by BLAC director and co-founder, Dr. John Mundell. April 20, 2021.
Cover photo of mural featuring slain Rio de Janeiro councilwoman, Marielle Franco.