NCHGS is thrilled to be in conversation with Dr. Omaris Z. Zamora, Ph.D, Professor of LCS and Africana Studies at Rutgers University.
Dr. Omaris Zamora is a transnational Black Dominican Studies scholar and spoken-word poet. Her research interests include: theorizing AfroLatinidad in the context of race, gender, and sexuality through Afro-diasporic approaches.
Her current book project tentatively titled, Cigüapa Unbound: AfroLatina Feminist Epistemologies of Tranceformation examines the transnational Black Dominican narratives put forth in the work of Firelei Baez, Elizabeth Acevedo, Nelly Rosario, Ana Lara, Loida Maritza Pérez, Josefina Baez, Cardi B, and La Bella Chanel. Zamora pays close attention to how they embody their blackness, produce knowledge, and shift the geographies of black feminism in ways that recognize the legacies of Chicana/Latina and Black American feminist theory in the United States, but tends to the specific experiences of AfroLatina women and their multiple genealogies.
In this installment of our In Conversation series, Dr. Zamora will speak to practices of knowledge production in marginalized communities. As a Dominican scholar at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality studies, Dr. Zamora will lead us through conversations on identity and history-making in the 21st century. What does it mean to identify as a Black American feminist? How have the voices of AfroLatina women been silenced, and how have AfroLatina women raised their voices against this silence? How can the transformation of self become a method of telling and doing history?
A Zoom link will be sent to all participants via email within one week of the event date.