Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is a sociologist and cultural studies scholar who is interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas uses the arts as a tool for social change, specifically through decolonizing systems of thinking and knowing in the Americas. Dr. Saunders was a Mark Claster Mamolen Fellow (2022) at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & American Research, where they began working on their book theorizing the relationship between race, gender and decolonial social movements in the hemisphere.
As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar to Brazil, Dr. Saunders began work on their current project about Black Queer Artivism in Brazil. They hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master of International Development Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. They were also a co-recipient of the Abdias do Nascimento Institutional Advancement Award funded by CAPES in Brazil. They have also lectured, taught and organized workshops and symposia throughout the Americas.
Dr. Saunders’ 2015 book entitled Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity was published by the University of Texas Press. The Portuguese version of the book (2021) was released by Editora Editus as Modernidade Negra: hip hop, artivismo e mudança social em Havana, Jess Oliveira translator. Dr. Saunders is also the director of the film project entitled Afro Feminismos em Cuba which is currently streamed on YouTube. They have published and lectured extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dr. Saunders also started as small press called Améfrica Press. The goal of Améfrica Press is to connect the Americas through translation. Amefrica Press is a collaborative academic and artistic initiative. The Press is a collaboration between professors, including professors who are professional translators, and artists thought out the hemisphere. Please learn more about Améfrica Press at www.amefricapress.com.
Recent Publications include:
Saunders, Tanya (forthcoming – Fall 2025). Tiely PRINCE and the Trans*formation of Brazilian National Hip Hop. In Hiphop Studies in Queer Black Feminism. Elaine Richardson and Treva Lindsey and Gwendolyn D. Pough (eds.). The University of California Press.
Saunders, Tanya. (2024). “The Rise of the Sapatão: Race, Gender and Decolonization.” Transitions: Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora. Issue 135 entitled Species. The Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA [could you highlight this text and post this link: https://transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/issue-135-species/]
Saunders, Tanya. (2022) Theorizing Kuirlombismos and Black Liberation Across the Diaspora: Black Brazilian Artivists Challenge the Coloniality of Affect. In GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Duke University Press. Issue 28:4, October. [could you highlight this text and post this link: https://read.dukeupress.edu/glq/article-abstract/28/4/589/318098/Theorizing-Kuirlombismos-and-Black-Liberation?redirectedFrom=fulltext]
Special issue on Solidão for Women’s Studies Quarterly.
Ramos Silva, Luciane, Tanya L. Saunders, and Sarah Soanirina Ohmer eds. (2021). Women’s Studies Quarterly Special Issue on Solidão/Black Women’s Affect. Women’s studies quarterly 49, no. 1.
Special Issue of CRGS – The Caribbean Review of Gender Studies.
Saunders, Tanya and Simone Brandao, Mariana Rodrigues, Jessica Ipolito. Special Issue on Gender and Sexuality in Brazil for the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies (https://sta.uwi.edu/crgs/) December, 2020, Vol. 14