BY SUSANNA SHARPE WE DON'T OFTEN STOP TO THINK about why we speak the way we speak, or how some of our linguistic habits came to be. But this is one of the things linguists like Sandro Sessarego pay great attention to. Sessarego (pronounced seh-SAH-re-go), associate professor in the Department of … [Read more...] about Faculty Spotlight: Sandro Sessarego
Black Diaspora
Cover Photographer: Adeloyá Magnoni
Adeloyá Magnoni is a photographer-activist who uses an anthropological lens to give voice and visibility to diverse sexualities, genders, Afro-religious traditions, social identities, and ethnicities. She is a practitioner of Candomblé—a daughter of Exu and Yansã—bisexual, antiracist, and an … [Read more...] about Cover Photographer: Adeloyá Magnoni
Reconceptualizing Trans-Centered Research in 21st-Century Brazil
BY JOSHUA REASON FOR DAY OF THE DEAD LAST YEAR, toward the end of my Fulbright research in Salvador da Bahia, I attended “Elas Não Morreram” (They Did Not Die), a drag show commemorating the five-year anniversary of Coletivo das Liliths, an LGBTQI1 theater collective I had become acquainted with … [Read more...] about Reconceptualizing Trans-Centered Research in 21st-Century Brazil
Interview: Alessandro de Oliveira dos Santos
Social psychologist Alessandro de Oliveira dos Santos works with people and communities pushed to the brink by economic, social, and environmental forces beyond their control. He taught the graduate seminar Environmental Racism and Struggles for Recognition among People of the Amazon Forest in … [Read more...] about Interview: Alessandro de Oliveira dos Santos
Establishing History: The Black Diaspora Archive and the Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project
BY RACHEL E. WINSTON The vision for the Black Diaspora Archive at The University of Texas at Austin came into focus in 2013 as a collaborative project between Black Studies, LLILAS Benson, and the University of Texas Libraries. After years of continued successful collaboration, Black Studies … [Read more...] about Establishing History: The Black Diaspora Archive and the Texas Domestic Slave Trade Project
Brazilian Roças: A Legacy in Peril
BY EDWARD SHORE Vanessa de França is a farmer and activist from São Pedro, one of 88 quilombos, rural black communities descended from fugitive slaves, that call the Atlantic forest of São Paulo state and neighboring Paraná their home. Two hundred years ago, de França’s ancestors escaped the gold … [Read more...] about Brazilian Roças: A Legacy in Peril
Archiving Human Rights Documentation: The Promise of the Post-Custodial Approach in Latin America
BY THERESA E. POLK Guatemala’s internal armed conflict was brutal by all accounts, and justice for human rights violations has been notoriously difficult to attain in its wake. Yet there have also been some critical milestones, including convictions in 2010 for the forced disappearance of labor … [Read more...] about Archiving Human Rights Documentation: The Promise of the Post-Custodial Approach in Latin America
Transitory Ghosts: Haitians and Dominico-Haitians in Santo Domingo
STUDENT RESEARCH: CITIZENSHIP AND LIMBO IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BY JOSÉ RUBIO-ZEPEDA “I’m a nobody in my own country.” These are the words spoken by Juliana Deguis Pierre, a Dominican woman who made national headlines in the Dominican Republic after being denied Dominican citizenship … [Read more...] about Transitory Ghosts: Haitians and Dominico-Haitians in Santo Domingo
Unsettling Ideas about Africa and Blackness: Contemplating Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic
STUDENT RESEARCH: CITIZENSHIP AND LIMBO IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BY JHEISON ROMAIN As I neared the end of my field research in the Dominican Republic, while in a batey[1] in the north of the country, I had a conversation with a 28-year-old black man who was born and raised in the … [Read more...] about Unsettling Ideas about Africa and Blackness: Contemplating Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic
The Canary in the Mine: Anti-Black Violence and the Paradox of Brazilian Democracy
BY CHRISTEN A. SMITH The Brazilian political crisis of 2016 has sent shockwaves through the nation. Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, has been accused of corruption and is facing impeachment proceedings. Millions of Brazilians have demonstrated in the streets against the … [Read more...] about The Canary in the Mine: Anti-Black Violence and the Paradox of Brazilian Democracy
