The LLC Program Welcomes a New Faculty Member

After a national search, the Language, Literacy & Culture Program is very pleased to announce that Dr. Tanya L. Saunders will be joining the program as Associate Professor in Fall 2022. They will fill a niche for research and advising in the area of Black expressive culture across the diaspora.

Dr. Saunders is currently in residence, during the Spring of 2022, as a Mark Claster Mamolen Fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African & American Research, working on their book tentatively entitled Estéticas do Bapho: Queering Black Brazilian Artivism and Politics of Liberation. 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.

As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar to Brazil, Saunders began work on their current project about Black Queer Artivism in Brazil. Saunders holds 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 two Abdias do Nascimento Awards funded by CAPES in Brazil. 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 was released a few weeks ago by Editora Editus as Modernidade Negra: hip hop, artivismo e mudança social em Havana. They are 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 and have served on many dissertation committees and taught graduate courses over the last several years.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Saunders to the LLC Doctoral Program!