Colorism Across Global Lines — Symposium

Conveners

• Awam Amkpa, Vice Provost for the Arts, Dean of Arts and Humanities; Professor of Drama, Social and Cultural Analysis | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Awam Amkpa is a scholar, filmmaker, and curator. He obtained his BA from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, before pursuing an MA at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. He later earned his PhD from Bristol University, where he conducted research on modernisms in film and theater. Throughout his career, Amkpa has been a leading voice in the fields of postcolonial film and theater, Black Atlantic films and theater, and visual arts. He is the author of Theatre and Postcolonial Desires, a highly regarded book published by Routledge in 2003 that explores the relationship between theater and postcolonialism. In addition to his academic work, Amkpa is also a prolific filmmaker and curator. He has directed a number of film documentaries and curated photographic exhibitions and film festivals, which have been showcased at prominent venues and events around the world. His writing has been published in numerous academic journals and edited volumes, and he has presented his research at conferences and seminars on several continents.

• Fatiah Touray, Executive Director, Inclusion and Equity | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Fatiah Touray, Esq.’s unique blend of legal expertise, education, and inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and access/accessibility leadership make her an invaluable asset to NYU Abu Dhabi and the wider higher education community. As the Executive Director for Inclusion and Equity at NYU Abu Dhabi, she leads the development and implementation of programs and initiatives that promote a more inclusive and diverse campus environment. Fatiah collaborates closely with the Office of the Provost, Spiritual Life, Intercultural Education, and Conflict Transformation (SLICECT), and students, faculty, and staff. She brings extensive leadership experience in higher education, complemented by her non-profit work and training as a lawyer and classroom teacher. Fatiah comes to NYUAD from Sarah Lawrence College where she was the inaugural Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Special Assistant to the President. Previously, she was the Assistant Dean of Diversity and International Advising and the Director of the Academic Achievement Program at the College of Arts and Science at NYU. One area of research that interests Fatiah is the impact of colorism across global lines, which is especially relevant to the topic of this symposium. Fatiah's academic achievements include a B.A. with Honors in Journalism and Africana Studies from NYU, a Master of Science in Education from The City University of New York - Brooklyn College, and a JD from the Howard University School of Law. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills, consistently advocating for marginalized communities and fostering a culture of inclusion.

• Renee Blake, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Social and Cultural Analysis | New York University

  Renée Blake is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Social & Cultural Analysis at New York University (NYU) with affiliations in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Department of Anthropology. She is a founding member of the Center for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora (CSAAD). She has served as an Associate Producer, Producer, and contributor to the EMMY-winning film series, Talking Black in America. She currently serves as the Chair of the JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Council in the College of Arts and Science at NYU, and is a Faculty Lead (Ghana) for NYU’s Presidential Honors Scholars for Sophomores and Juniors.Her research examines language contact, race, ethnicity, and class with a focus on African American English, Caribbean English  Creoles, and New York City English. Her quantitative and qualitative work have been published in several professional journals and books and she regularly does public-interfacing around language in society. She is the co-founder of United Solutions Consultancy Group, a firm specializing in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB), and whose mission is to increase cultural competencies and capacities, and bring people closer together through their humanity. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, a Master of Science in Linguistics and a Bachelor of Sciences in Biology, all from Stanford University. She also studied at the Università per Stranieri di Perugia in Italy. She was a National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded scholar at the University of Amsterdam and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of the West Indies, Barbados. Dr. Blake is the recipient of numerous other awards and accolades.

• Lisa Coleman, Senior Vice President, Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation | New York University

  Dr Lisa Coleman is New York University’s (NYU) Inaugural Senior Vice President for Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation where she works to advance, promote, build capacity and align strategic global diversity, equity, inclusion, access, belonging, and innovation initiatives across NYU global network including NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU Shanghai, and other sites. Reporting to NYU President Andrew Hamilton, Dr Coleman works with the Office of the Provost, deans, and other senior leaders, internal stakeholders, external partners, and constituents to advance, promote, and build capacity for strategic global inclusion, diversity, equity, belonging and innovation initiatives across NYU’s global network. Dr Coleman is also a faculty member at NYU Stern School of Business. Prior to NYU, Dr Coleman served as the first Special Assistant to the President and Chief Diversity Officer at Harvard University where she and her team developed some of the first initiatives focused on the intersections of technology, disability, and access. Her early professional experience includes working with Tufts University, the Association of American Medical Colleges, Merrill Lynch Inc, and as an independent computer and data analytics consultant, and organizational strategic adviser. Dr Coleman has worked and consulted C-Suite leaders globally across sectors. Her work is centered on cultivating cross-sector inclusive leadership and board engagement; emerging generations, sectors, and the future of work; entrepreneurial markets to advance innovation; and employ data analytics and other emerging technologies to leverage diverse cultures globally. She is the recipient of numerous awards, recognitions, and honors, and she also sits on various national and international boards. An interdisciplinary scholar, Dr Coleman earned a doctorate in Social and Cultural Analysis and American Studies from NYU, and three master’s degrees. She also holds certificates focusing on legal theory, intercultural and organizational development and computer science. Dr Coleman is an avid photographer, gardener, and cook, and is (very) slowly learning how to fly planes.

• Rogaia M. Abusharaf, Professor of Anthropology | Georgetown University in Qatar

  Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf is a Professor of Anthropology at SFSQ-Georgetown University. She is the author of Wanderings (Cornell U. Press). Transforming Displaced Women in the Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement and Darfur Allegory, both from the University of Chicago Press. She is the founding Editor of Monsoon: Journal of the Indian Ocean Rim (Duke University Press). Her ethnographic work focuses on cultural anthropology and feminist ethnography and her fieldwork encompasses Sudan, Zanzibar and the Sultanate of Oman.

• Sara J. Musaifer, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Social Science Division | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Sara J. Musaifer is a postdoctoral research associate at NYU Abu Dhabi’s Social Science Division. With a background in political science and public policy, she completed her doctorate degree in Comparative Education from the University of Minnesota (2022). An ethnographer of education, her research and pedagogy are rooted in Fanonian internationalism and committed to advancing educational justice in communities near and far. The journeys she walked as a learner, educator, and researcher in educational settings in Minnesota, Bahrain, and elsewhere planted seeds of curiosity about the purposes and consequences of contemporary schooling systems. Her previous and current work examines an array of themes emerging at the intersection of ideal girlhood, modern education, and nation-building in the context of colonial and contemporary Bahrain. Sara is a founding member and co-editor of AGITATE! Unsettling Knowledges, a founding board member of Language Attitude, as well as a racial literacy educator and village member of The Lion’s Story.

Program, May 15-16, 2023

• May 15, 2023

  Beyond Skin Deep: Deep: Reflections from the Conveners and Program Organizers

  The conveners and program organizers reflect on the journey to having critical conversations on colorism and its manifestations in the Gulf. To do this, the discussion takes NYU Abu Dhabi’s campus as its point of entry, elevating the embodied experiences of individuals at the local level. Along with first person narratives, scholars whose interdisciplinary research grapples with the ways in which skin color forms and informs social and experiential differences around the world have been invited to expand on the conversation theoretically and empirically. Insisting on colorism as sociohistorical, the symposium aims to deepen our understanding, foster knowledge-building, and cultivate radical transformation, with an eye towards advancing inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and access within the NYUAD community and beyond.

  The Roots/Routes of Colorism: A Historical Grounding

  This conversation historicizes colorism–grounding the phenomenon in the legacies of colonialism and colonial hegemony. With its various historical trajectories, this societal ill-cemented lighter-skin preference with lasting socio-cultural markings in regions such as the Americas, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. The conversation tackles the varied manifestations of colorism in communities across the globe, as well as its intersection with racism and structural inequities

  Glow and Lovely

  In this panel, the conversation attempts to connect the political and historical to the cultural and everyday manifestations of colorism. Paying attention to the quotidian taking shape over multiple geographical spaces, the panelists critically interrogate discourses on colorism by a) exploring how contemporary popular beauty standards are imagined, articulated, and upheld in media; and b) tracing the intimate entanglement of established beauty standards with access to social mobility, capital, and marriage selection.

  Learning to See Color 

  “But I don’t see color” — the often uttered retort to narratives of lived lives that experience marginalizing and damaging effects of anti-blackness, racism, and colorism in society. This panel is about: 1) experiencing colorism through personal narratives, and 2) examining the pedagogies and related manifestations of colorism. We consider the role of the family, and by extension, educational institutions in the socialization and validation of anti-blackness and colorism in the project of nation-building. Educational institutions are discussed as places where colorism is reified, but can also be contested with new narratives of empowerment and healing.

  The Color of the Future

  As the culmination of the day’s intellectual exchange and knowledge-building on colorism, this panel seeks to translate these conversations into possible tangible strategies in the realm of policy and inclusive market practices. The underlying assertion is that tackling colorism necessitates a multi-layered and multi-faceted approach, anchored in lived experiences and evidence-based research, with a discussion that is creative, forward-looking, and full of hope.

• May 16, 2023

  Living in Color

  The poem "Living Color" refers to classical European artworks to reflect on hegemonic conceptions of beauty. The poem then considers how this "conventional" beauty gets embedded in the logic of patriarchy that governs gender relations within the African American home.

  Colorful Reflections: How Skin Tone, Reflected Race, and Discrimination Intertwine

  How do Black, Latinx, and White people who believe they are mistaken as a member of another racial group perceive the amount of racial discrimination they experience, and what role does skin tone play? I analyze the amount of discrimination Black people, Latinxs, and Whites report when they believe others do not see them as their self-identified race, and how skin tone is connected to racial identity mismatch. I suggest that the Black-White binary continues to divide Black and White people across identity measures and emphasizes how racial identity is quite complex for Latinxs

  Colorizing Latin America

  The presentation will discuss colorism among the Latino Diaspora in New York City through the findings of Colorizing, an interview-based and multimedia installation project. Our goal is to defy the simplistic racialization of the term “Latino” in academia and U.S. society, discussing the intersections between race, miscegenation and nationality.

  The Impact of Colorism in Guyanese Society and the Caribbean: The African Diaspora Experience

  Before addressing the substance of my topic, I will provide a brief overview of the demographics of African Diaspora in Guyana that make up about 30% of the population and about 15 million people of African descent who populate the Caribbean. For purposes of my presentation, I define colorism as showing preferential treatment to people of a lighter skin tone over others with darker skin within the same racial group. Is this a form of self-hatred? There is a school of thought that would answer this question affirmatively. In Guyana and the Caribbean, the notion that lighter-skinned Black people are better than others with a browner hue, can be traced to the enslavement of people of African descent.Clearly colorism resulted from racism directly attributable to white supremacy which evolved from colonialism. Many of the Caribbean islands and Guyana were colonized by England, Spain, Portugal, and France and these countries perpetrated enslavement and indentureship, ultimately leading to colorism as it is called today.

  Colorism as Marriage Capital in India: Unpacking the Nexus of Global Capitalism with Gendered Patriarchal and Caste Ideology in Dispossession of Matrimonial Choice

  This presentation examines how colorism operates as “marriage capital,” thus lending to dispossession of matrimonial choice for poor women in India. I illustrate this novel theorization about colorism linked matrimonial violence with findings from my study of marriage migration of darker-hued rural Dalit women from east India to the culturally alien region of North India. The presentation ends by arguing that a larger discussion on dismantling colorism has to involve decolonizing our minds of skin-tone bias and caste ideology as much as disrupting transnational capital that seeks to further entrench colorism in its quest for profit-maximization.

  Notes on Colorism in the Filipinx Community

  "Don't stay out in the sun or you'll get too dark!" These words are so common among Filipinx youth that many do not question the intent behind the seemingly well-intentioned advice. This talk will delve into the contours of colorism among the Filipinx community by connecting the colonial history of the Philippines to the role of skin color in families and other intimate spaces.

  Colorism in Japan: Japan’s Invisible Visible Minorities

  Colorism in Japan is a non-topic, given that national narratives are that Japan is a monoethnic, homogeneous society, and that official government stances deny racism in Japan even exists. This is demonstrably false, and this presentation will discuss what is being overlooked and why.

  Making Sense of Light Skin, Privileges, and Womanhood: Social and Linguistic Excursions in Malinké

  The paper examines pop music and phrases in Malinké that praise light skin women to argue the contingency of the linguistic and social significance of skin color. In turning to language uses, in this case, Malinké, I diverge from the privileging of lightness as a stable category and a fundamental consequence of the contact with the West

  White Supremacy, Gender, and Colorism: Time and the Social Structure

  White supremacy has always been the independent variable in the dynamics of colorism, with historical oppression triggering multiple strategies by African Americans to survive and better their life chances. Rather than the historical tendency of scholars to describe women as the decision-makers in producing colorism, twentieth-century data suggests that black male choices increasingly have been responsible for reproducing colorism. Today, it is especially important to see the role that immigration, interracial marriage, and institutional dynamics play in altering African-American life chances, given colorism.

  Color Me Bad: The Psychological Impact of Colorism Across Populations of Color

  This presentation will explore the negative psychological impact of prejudice and discriminatory behavior on persons with darker skin in Arab, Black, Latino, and South Asian communities with an emphasis on college-age students/young adults. Issues including identity development, family relationships, and career progression will be highlighted.

• Adah Ward Randolph — Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation | Ohio University

  Dr. Adah Ward Randolph is a Professor of Educational Research and Evaluation (EDRE) at Ohio University in the Patton College of Education where she specializes in qualitative methodology, cultural studies, and the history of education. She received her PhD from The Ohio State University in Educational Policy and Leadership with specializations in African American and Women’s education history, urban education policy, race, class and gender studies, curriculum, and qualitative methodology. Her primary research has focused on African American teachers and principals in urban communities in the 19th and 20th century urban North and South. Dr. Randolph has over fifty publications published in many Tier I journals including Qualitative Inquiry, The Journal of African American History, Urban Education, Educational Studies, Journal of School Leadership and History of Education Quarterly. Since 1986, Dr. Randolph has conducted anti-racist workshops as a member of Women Against Racism at the University of Iowa. Dr. Randolph is a member of many professional organizations and has served in many leadership roles including the Presidency of the History of Education Society.

• Afifa Ltifi — PhD Candidate, Africana Studies and Research Center | Cornell University

  Afifa Ltifi is a PhD candidate in the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. Originally from Tunisia, her research interests are located in the overlap of (North) Africa’s critical history and culture, Afro-Arab relations, theories of time and modernity, comparative slavery, black critical theory, race and racial formation, among others. Her dissertation project excavates a conceptual genealogy of race and blackness in North Africa, by examining late nineteenth and twentieth centuries’ social history of black Tunisians.

• Aisha Phoenix — Senior Justice Lecturer | King’s College London

  Dr Aisha Phoenix is a Social Justice lecturer at the School of Education, Communication and Society at King’s College London. She is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Principal Investigator of the Understanding Colourism Among Young People research project. She conducted the first major sociological study that explores colorism in the UK with Dr Nadia Craddock and has discussed colorism on BBC programs, LBC, Deutsche Welle, and podcasts. She was the postdoctoral researcher on the Re/presenting Islam on Campus research project based at SOAS, University of London. Her Sociology PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, explored how Palestinian university students in the West Bank narrated their lives under occupation. She has a Master's in Social Research (Goldsmiths), Social Anthropology of Development (SOAS), and Creative Writing (Birkbeck). Her undergraduate degree was in Arabic and Modern Middle Eastern Studies (the University of Oxford). Her colorism publications include: ‘Black Men’s Experiences of Colourism in the UK’ with Dr Craddock (Sociology), ’Colourism and the Politics of Beauty’ (Feminist Review), and ‘Colourism — how shade bias perpetuates prejudice against people with dark skin’ (The Conversation). Other publications include the co-authored book Islam on Campus: Contested Identities & the Cultures of Higher Education in Britain (Oxford University Press).

• Amy Walker— Student Wellness Counselor | Georgetown University in Qatar

  Dr. Amy Walker is a US-trained licensed psychologist and student wellness counselor at Georgetown University in Qatar. Over the past 20 years, she has served international populations in both America and Qatar, specializing in psychotherapy and is committed to the continuous practice and development of multicultural humility and ethics. Additionally, Dr. Walker provides expertise in diversity and inclusion training, psychological, career, and health consulting, and teaching. She earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in 2007. To assist clients to better understand the intersection of mental and physical health, Dr. Walker completed an MS in Exercise Science and Health Promotion from the California University of Pennsylvania (2015) and is a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer. She also holds a M.A. in Community Counseling from the University of Maryland College Park (2001), and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Pittsburgh (1995).

• Ayu Saraswati — Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa

  L. Ayu Saraswati is professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. She is the author of the recently published Scarred: A Feminist Journey through Pain. Her previous books include Pain Generation: Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Selfie and Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia. She is the co-editor of Introduction to Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Feminist and Queer Theory. Some of the highlights of her works include: receiving the National Women’s Studies Association Gloria Anzaldua book award, being noted as one of the most impactful works in the past twenty years by Meridians journal, and one of the most downloaded articles in Gender, Work & Organization.

• Bayan Abubakr — PhD candidate of Middle Eastern and African history | Yale University

  Bayan Abubakr is a PhD candidate of Middle Eastern and African history at Yale University. Prior to Yale, Bayan graduated magna cum laude with high honors in history and a minor in politics from NYU. Bayan's research centers trans-Saharan histories of slavery and circuits of capital in the formation of 19th-century Arabism & Blackness in the Afro-Arab world. Her dissertation, “The Forty Days’ Road & the World Around It: Race, Slavery, and Society in Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan, 1840-1924,” examines how the movement, experiences, and networks of enslaved peoples and slave-trading merchants in Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan along trans-Saharan trading routes influenced the way they racialized themselves and were themselves racialized. She also asks how these processes structured the governance of Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan and informed the making of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1899-1956). Bayan reads Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and English archival sources alongside oral histories conducted in Sudan to examine histories of slavery in Ottoman-Egyptian Sudan as constituent elements of the economic and intellectual routes comprising the trans-Saharan caravan trade.

• Brian J. Yates — Associate Professor of History | Saint Joseph University

  Brian J. Yates earned his BA from Morehouse College in 2002 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 2009. Before his present position as an Associate Professor of History at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA, he was a Mellon post-doctoral fellow at Oberlin College. His research focuses on the identities, societies, and cultural practices of the highlands of Northern Ethiopia, specifically the historical provinces of Wällo and Shäwa during the 19th century. His work has appeared in History in Africa, the Journal of Oromo Studies, the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, the Journal of Black Studies, Northeast African Studies, and African Identities. He has also published an article on Reginald Hudlin’s run on the Black Panther in Fire!!!: The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies, which has led to a guest editorship on a special edition of FIRE!!! that focused on Blackness in Graphic Novels and Comics. In addition, Dr. Yates published The Other Abyssinians: The Northern Oromo and the Creation of Modern Ethiopia by the University of Rochester Press in 2020. Works in progress aim to broaden understandings of Black identities using the lenses of gender, popular culture, and colorism throughout the African Diasporas.

• Bruna Araujo Pereira — Visual Arts Student | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Bruna is a visual artist and third-year student of Art and Art History at NYU Abu Dhabi. Through her classes and arts practice, she studies topics on race, gender, and migration. Bruna is influenced by her own upbringing in the periphery of São Paulo, Brazil, and the ways that her racial ambiguity as well as experiences with gender discrimination have shifted since her recent moving to the UAE. Seeking a more nuanced understanding of race in Latin America, Bruna joined the art- and research-based project Colorizing as a translator and graphic designer in 2022. In the same year, she had her most recent group exhibition at NYUAD’s Project Space, where she produced a series of drawings and paintings about re-imagining the Anthropocene through the perspective of native populations, inspired by the work of Brazilian Indigenous writer Ailton Krenak. Bruna currently works as an Arts programming assistant at NYUAD’s Career Development Center. She is passionate about learning new intersections between arts, politics, and liberation.

• Charliaos Mertzanis — Professor of Finance | Abu Dhabi University

  Dr. Charilaos Mertzanis is currently a Professor of Finance at Abu Dhabi University (ADU). He holds a PhD in financial economics from the New School for Social Research (USA), where he studied as a Fulbright and NATO fellow. Prior to joining the ADU, he served as an Associate Professor of Finance at the American University in Cairo and the Director of Research and Market Regulation in the Capital Market Commission (Greece) during 2000-2014. He was a member of the OECD Corporate Governance Committee from 1999-2014; a member in the ESMA Financial Stability Working Group; the coordinator of the Corporate Governance Committee in Greece; and Chairman of the EU Council for the Transparency Directive, among others. He has provided professional advice to many governments and financial regulators on financial policy development. He has written many scholarly papers on capital markets, corporate governance, financial regulation, and access to finance. His main research interests include the role of institutions in financial decision-making. A key recent research accomplishment is the development of an epidemiological risk index for 147 countries, which measures country resilience to epidemiological risk.

• Dash Harris Machado — Producer and Director of Negro: A Docu-Series on Latinx Identity, Co-Founder of AfroLatinx Travel

  Dash Harris Machado is a Peabody-award-winning multimedia journalist, filmmaker and producer, public historian and educator, facilitator, and coach focused on AfroDiasporic identities, histories, and cultures. Producer and Director of Negro: A Docu-Series on Latinx Identity, Co-Founder of AfroLatinx Travel, a travel and community-building resource for the African Diaspora in Latin America, led by Black Latin American locals and co-host of Radio Caña Negra podcast and facilitator of their “AntiBlackness in the Latine Community” training series. Dash has extensive experience and portfolio that demonstrates originality and innovation in storytelling, content creation, filmmaking, historical research, and intersectional anti-racist training, workshops, and coaching.

• Debito Arudou — Lecturer Faculty in the Departments of Political Science | California State University Los Angeles and California State University Long Beach

  Debito Arudou, PhD, has been a scholar of Japan for more than three decades, a Japanese resident for a quarter century, and a naturalized Japanese citizen since 2000. A graduate of Cornell University, the University of California San Diego, and Meiji Gakuin University in Japan, he has authored several books in English and Japanese, including Embedded Racism: Japan’s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination (Lexington Books, 2nd Ed. 2022), Japanese Only: The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination in Japan, and Handbook for Newcomers, Migrants, and Immigrants to Japan (Akashi Shoten, multiple editions). Since 2002 he has written monthly columns on human rights in Japan for The Japan Times and the Shingetsu News Agency. His award-winning archive of essays, articles, and reference materials for life in Japan, established in 1996, is at www.debito.org. He is currently Lecturer Faculty in the Departments of Political Science (as Debito Arudou Beamer) at California State University Los Angeles and California State University Long Beach.

• Eduarda dos Santos Brandão — Theater Student | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Eduarda is an artist and second-year Theater student at NYU Abu Dhabi. She is especially interested in exploring the different perspectives that a single story can have, as well as broadcasting voices that are underrepresented in the arts. Eduarda takes advantage of the liberal arts education to pursue classes in different areas and transform that interdisciplinary knowledge into art. Apart from theater, she is interested in fields of race, latinx studies, and social activism. Because of Colorizing’s intersectional approach towards these topics, Eduarda joined the project as a research assistant and translator in 2022. She also contributed to the exhibition with her poem “Ocean of the Unknown”, which transforms Colorizing interviewees’ experiences into a metaphor about migration and search for identity. In her poem, Eduarda also uses Latino/Latin descended artists such as Emicida and Lin Manuel Miranda as inspiration and pays homage to them through features such as rhythm, word-play, and structure. Eduarda aims to bridge the gap between academia and marginalized communities through representative theater and thought-provoking performances.

• Ginetta Candelario — Professor of Sociology and Latin American & Latina/o Studies and Study of Women & Gender Program Affiliate | Smith College

  Ginetta E.B. Candelario is Full Professor in the Department of Sociology at Smith College in Northampton, MA, where she is also a faculty affiliated with the departments of Latin American and Latino Studies; Gender and Women; and the Jandon Center for Community Collaboration. The Editor of Meridians: race, feminism, transnationalism since 2017, she also has published a dozen articles and the books El negro detrás de las orejas: Identidad racial dominicana, desde los museos hasta el salón de belleza (Santo Domingo: Editora Universitaria Bonó, 2021); Cien años de feminismos dominicanos: Un colección de documentos y escrituras clave en la formación y evolución del pensamiento y el movimiento feminista en la República Dominicana, 1865-1965; Tomo I, El fuego tras la ruinas y Tomo II, Las siempre fervientes devotas (Santo Domingo: Archivo General de la Nación, 2016) with April J. Mayes (Pomona College, Claremont, CA) and Elizabeth S. Manley (Xavier University, New Orleans, LA); Black behind the Ears: Dominican Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), recipient of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and the New England Council of Latin American Studies (NECLS); Miradas desencadenantes: Los estudios de género en la República Dominicana al inicio del tercer milenio (Santo Domingo: FLACSO & INTEC, 2005). This last book compiled papers presented at a historic conference on gender studies in the Dominican Republic that Candelario organized as part of her Fulbright scholarship in 2003, and began the series of Miradas desencadenantes published since then by the CEG-INTEC. In addition to a second Fulbright in Santo Domingo (2016), she was the 2021-2022 Wilbur Marvin Fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, and a 2021 NSA Fellow at the Dominican Studies Institute. She has served on the Finance Committee and the Committee on Professional Ethics of the American Sociological Association since 2017; was elected member of the Executive Board of LASA (Latin American Studies Association) from 2017 to 2020; was founding Vice President of the Association of Latino Studies Association from 2016 to 2018; and was a founding member of the New England Consortium for Latino Studies in 2010, on which she continues to serve as part of the executive committee.

• Gregory Pardlo — Program Head for Literature and Creative Writing, Visiting Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Gregory Pardlo is the author of Digest, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His other books include Totem, winner of the American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize and Air Traffic, a memoir in essays. His honors include fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University-Camden, and is the program head for Literature and Creative Writing, and a visiting professor of creative writing at NYU Abu Dhabi.

• Gwendolyn Mikell — Professor Emerita | Georgetown University

  Gwendolyn Mikell is Professor Emerita at Georgetown University in Washington DC, where she held joint appointments in the School of Foreign Service (SFS) and in the Anthropology Department of Georgetown College.  She served as Director of the African Studies Program in the School of Foreign Service, and Chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Departments. As a political and economic anthropologist, Mikell’s research has focused on Ghana, African feminism, Islam and peace dynamics in Nigeria, African democratization, SG Kofi Annan and the UN, and African-American urban dynamics. In addition to having received many fellowships, Mikell has been President of the African Studies Association USA, a member of scholarly Boards such as the American Anthropological Assn, and a life-member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of numerous articles, and books such as Cocoa and Chaos in Ghana, and African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Hasan Johnson — Head of Training and Education, Inclusion and Equity | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Hasan Johnson has 20+ years of professional experience in education, IDBEA, mental health, K-12 education, college teaching, clinical supervision, and teacher and counselor education, supervision, training and professional development. He has also worked as an instructor at Rutgers University and Montclair State University, USA. He has been in the UAE for six years and has worked at Zayed University where he served as a faculty member, Assistant Dean Of Students Affairs for the College of Education and as Chair for the Department of Education in the College Of Humanities and Social Sciences.

• Joanne L. Rondilla — Assistant Professor in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies and Asian American Studies | San José State University

  Joanne L. Rondilla, PhD is an assistant professor in Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies and Asian American Studies at San José State University. Currently, she is working on a federal grant to create the AANHPI ‘Ohana Center of Excellence, a US-based behavioral and mental health resource. Recently, she served as a Public Voices fellow at The OpEd Project. An award-winning educator she is the co-author of Is Lighter Better?: Skin Tone Discrimination Among Asian Americans (2007; with Paul Spickard) and co-editor of Red & Yellow, Black & Brown: Decentering Whiteness in Mixed Race Studies (2017; with Rudy Guevarra and Paul Spickard).

  Originally from Dededo, Guam, she and her family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area (Union City) when she was thirteen years old. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley (M.A., Ph.D.) and UC Santa Barbara (B.A.). Previously, she has taught at Sonoma State University, Arizona State University, UC Berkeley, and Santa Clara University. Outside of the academy, she has more than twelve years of work experience in the cosmetics industry as a skincare specialist and make-up artist.

• John Wright — Director, Student Life | Georgetown University in Qatar

  John Wright is a licensed psychologist who has served in the capacity of clinician, lecturer, and administrator during his 17 years at Georgetown University. His clinical interests have focused on identity development within emerging adults of color. He has a special interest in developing community-based, culturally-informed interventions to marginalized communities. Additionally, he has created and teaches courses that focus on identity formation through cross-cultural, experiential learning.

• Michaela Angela Davis — Writer, Creative Director, Producer and Image Activist

  Michaela Angela Davis is a writer, creative director, producer, and Headshot activist focusing on the intersections of gender, race, fashion, culture, beauty, and identity. She is the creator and executive producer of HULU’s The Hair Tales, a dynamic six-part docu-series celebrating Black women’s identity, beauty, culture, and humanity, uniquely expressed through the stories in hair featuring Ayanna Pressley, CHIKA, Marsai Martin, Chlöe Bailey and fellow executive producers Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey, recently nominated for two NAACP Headshot Awards. Davis collaborated with Mariah Carey on The Meaning of Mariah Carey a memoir of her identity — an instant #1 The New York Times bestseller. She has spoken globally and has been a cultural contributor and writer for The Atlantic, Allure, CNN, MSNBC, and The BBC. Her most recent project is another collaboration with Mariah Carey — a children's book titled The Christmas Princess which is available now everywhere books are sold.

• Naminata Diabate — Associate Professor of Comparative Literature | Cornell University

  Naminata Diabate is an Associate Professor of comparative literature at Cornell University. A scholar of gender, sexuality, and race, her most recent work on literary fiction, cinema, visual arts, and digital media has appeared in a monograph, peer-reviewed journals, and collections of essays. Her book, Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa (Duke UP 2020) received the African Studies Association 2021 Best Book Award and the African Literature Association 2022 First Book Prize. In addition to her interventions in conventional academic channels, Diabate contributes regularly to several media outlets, including newspapers, women’s magazines, and podcasts. Recently, she appeared in NBC News, BBC’s The Comb, Unladylike podcast, PBS’s Academic Minute, The New Books in Women’s History podcast, and the South African Podcast series, Sound Africa, and wrote for the women’s magazine Voix/Voie de Femmes in Côte d’Ivoire. Diabate’s forthcoming work will appear in The Journal of the African Literature Association, Meridians, and Monsoon, and two edited volumes, New Visions in African and African Diaspora Studies and The Archive in African Literature 1800-2000. This year, she holds the Ali Mazrui Senior Research Fellowship at the Africa Institute of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, working on two monographs, “Pleasure and Displeasure in Global Africa” and “Digital Insurgencies and Bodily Domains.”

• Neha Mishra — Associate Professor and Associate Dean | Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University

  Dr. Neha Mishra currently works as Associate Professor and Associate Dean at Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, India. Previously, she worked as Director, School of Legal Studies at REVA University, Bangalore.  

  Her research focuses on the intersection of human rights, gender, Colorism, and law. She has actively provided pro bono legal assistance to marginalized women including trafficking survivors and street children in rural and urban setups and has been involved in training Judicial officers, Police, and Prosecutors in India. She has given keynote addresses on Color and Caste perspectives in Global South at the American Embassy in India, Russia, Pakistan, and Indian Human Rights Commissions. Her research has been published extensively in international academic journals; her opinions can also be seen in TIME magazine, BBC, Asia Times, Huff Post, Times of India. 

• Rani Varghese — Associate Professor of Social Work | Adelphi University

  Dr. Rani Varghese, LMSW, EdD is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Adelphi University, School of Social Work, teaching across the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral curriculum. Drawing on her training in the fields of Social Work, Social Justice Education, and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, she brings an interdisciplinary and social justice approach to her teaching, practice, research, and consulting. Rani has spent her social work career working in the context of colleges and universities addressing the psychosocial needs of students and in particular, supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Her scholarship, grounded in qualitative methodology, focuses on dialogic practices and educational models of teaching about race/racism and other forms of oppression. She is a contributor to the Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, (3rd and 4th ed.) and Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (4th and upcoming 5th ed.) textbooks. She also has written about trauma-informed social justice practice and supervision. Outside the classroom, she works with faculty about pedagogical and curricular issues and provides DEI training and coaching across a range of organizations and institutions. She also supports parents and caregivers in engaging in conversations with children about issues of social justice.

• Reena Kukreja — Assistant Professor, Department of Global Development and Department of Gender Studies and the Cultural Studies Program | Queen’s University

  Dr. Kukreja is Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Development Studies with cross-appointment to Gender Studies Department and affiliation with the Cultural Studies Program at Queen’s University, Canada. Her research interests and filmmaking practice is focused on migration and development, political economy, marriage migration, South Asian masculinities, caste, and trafficking. Currently, her work examines the intersections of masculinity, sexuality, securitization of borders, and political economy on the lives of undocumented South Asian men in Greece. 

  She has published in journals such as Geoforum, Gender & Society, Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, Men & Masculinities, Modern Asian Studies, and Journal of Intercultural Studies. Her monograph on marriage migration in India, Why Would I Be Married Here? Marriage Migration and Dispossession in Neoliberal India (Cornell University Press) was published in April 2022. She is editing a double SI for NORMA: International Journal of Masculinity Studies titled, ‘Bordering Regimes and Transitioning Masculinities of Racialized Migrant Men: A Case Study of the EU’. She is also editing a special volume for Palgrave titled, South Asians in Southern Europe: Examining Love, Labour, and Desire.

• Riana Raymond-Williams — PhD Candidate Writer, Researcher, and Social Entrepreneur | Glasgow Caledonian University in London

  Rianna Raymond-Williams is a 4th Year PhD student at Glasgow Caledonian University in London. Her research explores how Black Caribbean women in the UK experience sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care. As part of documenting her PhD journey, Rianna hosts a podcast called Ree Speaks which aims to shine a light on a range of inspirational activists, researchers, practitioners & more that exist inside & outside of the academy through engaging in a variety of conversations discussing race, education, health and so much more.

  Rianna has 10 years of experience working in sexual and reproductive health, her previous roles include working for the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain and the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT). She has also freelanced as a journalist, predominantly covering community news and health and wellness for The Guardian, The Metro, Black Ballad, The Newham Recorder, The Stratford Recorder, The Voice Newspaper, and The Independent.

• Rosemary Kilkenny — Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer | Georgetown University

  Rosemary Kilkenny, the inaugural Vice President for Diversity,  Equity, Inclusion, and Chief Diversity Officer at Georgetown University was appointed to this position by Dr. John J. DeGioia, President of Georgetown. She serves on a variety of University committees including as the Chair of the University Leadership Council for Academic Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Racial Justice Initiatives, the Benefits Advisory Committee, Human Resources Advisory Committee, GU Cares Committee, and the Georgetown Women’s Alliance to name a few internal committees. Examples of Rosemary’s external national and community board service include but are not limited to the Board of Trustees for the Jesuit Refugee Services and the Academy of Hope, as well as the Editorial Board of the Negro Educational Review. Rosemary is one of eight co-founders of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE), and served on its Executive Committee & Board of Directors for eight years. She was appointed as a Trustee on Georgetown Day School’s Board of Trustees for nine years. She has also served on Sports for Education and Economic Development in Senegal (SEEDS), the Board of Directors of the American Association for Affirmative Action, now known as the American Association for Access, Equity & Diversity, and the Howard Road Academy among others. She has been honored by several Georgetown University organizations such as the African American Alumni Board (now called the Black Alumni Council), and the Women’s Center which tapped her for the Carol Lancaster Award. She was also honored with the Georgetown University Law Center’s Paul Dean Alumni Award for distinguished service and Kent State University’s Diversity Alumni Award. 

  Rosemary received her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center as well as a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Kent State University. 

• Samir Sweida-Metwally — Postdoctoral Research Associate in Social Science Division | NYU Abu Dhabi

  Samir is an interdisciplinary quantitative social scientist. His research focuses on ethnic and religious labor market inequalities in Britain, with a particular focus on the experience of  Muslims. He seeks to contribute to the improvement of worker well-being by using advanced quantitative methods, including complex longitudinal survey data analysis, index creation &  measurement, and multilevel modeling.

  His research, which has been published in Ethnic and Racial Studies, has garnered significant media attention in leading UK, UAE, and other international outlets, as well as having been referenced in the European Islamophobia Report 2022.  

  Samir holds a PhD in Advanced Quantitative Methods from the University of Bristol (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council), an MSc in Comparative Social Policy from the  University of Oxford (funded by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies), an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics, and a BSc (Hons) in Economics from Brunel University. During his PhD, he also completed a Diploma in Islamic Studies. 

  Samir is trilingual in English, Arabic, and French, and has extensive experience speaking at international academic conferences and business forums. Prior to joining academia, Samir worked in the private sector in the UK and the UAE. Combined, he has over 10 years of strategic advisory and research experience, including advising multinationals, government and semi-government organizations.

• Vanessa Gonlin — Assistant Professor of Sociology | University of Georgia

  Dr. Vanessa Gonlin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia in the US. Her research and teaching areas of expertise include colorism, racial identities, and interracial relationships, with a particular focus on Black peoples and multiracials. She studies the outcomes of skin tone variation, discrepancies in racial identity measures, and majority/minority interracial relationships from the minoritized racial partner’s perspective. Dr. Gonlin created, developed, and teaches the course Colorism and Hairism in Communities of Color, which is the first course of its kind at her institution. She received the Innovation in Multicultural Curriculum Grant from her institution for creating this course. Dr. Gonlin also received the Mary McLeod Bethune Educator Award from the University of Georgia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for her instruction of this colorism course. She now teaches this course at the graduate level, in addition to the undergraduate level, furthering students’ understanding of the impacts of colorism experienced in multiple communities.