Sujatha T. Fernandes
Department of Political Economy
Room 459, Merewether Building
School of Social and Political Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.sujathafernandes.com
POSITIONS
University of Sydney
Professor of Political Economy and Sociology, May 2016 - present
Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Professor of Sociology, August 2015 – May 2016
Associate Professor of Sociology, January 2012 – July 2015
Assistant Professor of Sociology, August 2006 – December 2011.
Princeton University
Wilson-Cotsen Fellow, Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts.
Lecturer in Public and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Politics and the
Council of the Humanities, July 2003 – July 2006.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Chicago,
Department of Political Science, 1998 - 2003.
BA (Honors), University of Sydney,
Political Economy, Gender Studies, 1997.
BA, University of Sydney,
Political Economy, Gender Studies, 1992-1995.
FELLOWSHIPS / AWARDS
2017, Faculty Research Support Scheme (FRSS), University of Sydney, $7,880
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2017, Education Innovation Project Schemes, School of Social and Political Sciences, University
of Sydney, $2,032.29 and $5000
2017, Strategic Education Grant, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Education, University of Sydney,
$12,000
2015 – 2016, Mellon Faculty Fellowship, Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative
Research, Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center (Three course releases)
2015 – 2016, Futures Initiative Faculty Fellow, team-taught a course at the Graduate Center with
Kandice Chuh
2007-2016, Faculty research grants, PSC-CUNY Research Foundation, Queens College, City
University of New York, $34,087.70
2014, Distinguished CUNY Fellowship, Advanced Research Collaborative (ARC) CUNY
Graduate Center, Spring 2014 (Full course release)
2012, Immigration Research Summer Award, Immigration Studies Working Group, Queens
College, CUNY, $4,000
2012-2013, Research Enhancement Funds, Queens College Research Enhancement Committee,
$4,080
2011-2012, Mellon Mid-Career Faculty Fellowship, The Committee on Globalization and Social
Change, CUNY Graduate Center (Four course releases)
2008, Feliks Gross Award, CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences (Presented each
year to an assistant professor in recognition of outstanding research)
2008-2009, Faculty Fellowship, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the CUNY Graduate
Center (Two course releases)
2007-2008, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Center for the Humanities at the CUNY Graduate
Center (Full course release)
2004-2006, Faculty research grants, University Committee on Research in the Humanities and
Social Sciences, Princeton University, $16,802
2004-2005, Faculty summer research grants, Program in Latin American Studies, Center for
Migration and Development, Princeton University, $6,750
2002-2003, Mellon Foundation Dissertation-Year Fellowship, University of Chicago, $16,500
2001-2002, SSRC Dissertation Fellowship on the Arts and Social Sciences, $16,000
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1998-2001, University of Chicago Century Fellowship, $52,000
1998-2001, University of Sydney Traveling Scholarship, $12,000
1996-1997, National Asian Language Scholarship, University of Sydney, $18,000
1997, University Medal in Asian Studies, University of Sydney
1996-1997, National Asian Language Scholarship, University of Sydney, $18,000
PUBLICATIONS
Books
The Cuban Hustle: Collected Essays (Under review, Duke University Press).
Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling, Oxford University Press, 2017.
Close to the Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation, New York: Verso, 2011
(Australian edition published by New South Books, Sydney, 2011.
Chinese edition published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, Shandong, 2013).
Who Can Stop the Drums? Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela, Durham: Duke
University Press, 2010.
(Spanish edition published by Editorial Imago Mundi, Buenos Aires, May 2014, Translated by
Hernando Calla).
Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures,
Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.
Articles in refereed journals
“Stories and Statecraft: Afghan Women’s Narratives and the Construction of Western
Freedoms,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Volume 42, Number 3, Spring
2017, pp 643 – 667.
“Out of the home, Into the House: Narratives and Strategies in Domestic Worker Legislative
Campaigns,” Social Text 34, Number 3, 2016, pp 1-25.
Courtney Frantz and Sujatha Fernandes, “Whose Movement Is It? Strategic Funding, Worker
Centers, and Foundation Influence.” Critical Sociology, 2016, pp 1 – 16.
“Building Child-Centered Social Movements,” Contexts, Winter 2016, Volume 15, Number 1,
pp 54 – 59.
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“Everyday Wars of Position: Social Movements and the Caracas Barrios in a Chávez Era.”
Colombia International 73, enero a junio de 2011, special issue on Latin American cities, edited
by Forrest Hylton, pp 71 - 90.
“Revolutionary Praxis in a Post-Neoliberal Era: Media Associations and the New Coalitional
Politics in Venezuela.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Volume 12,
Issue 1, March 2010, special issue edited by Shalini Puri, pp 88 - 99.
Reprinted in The Legacies of Caribbean Radical Politics, Shalini Puri (editor),
Routledge, 2011, pp 78 - 89.
“Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Chávez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Politics and
Society, Volume 49, Number 3, Fall 2007, pp 97 – 127.
Awarded the prize for best professional publication by the Section on Venezuelan Studies
of the Latin American Studies Association, September 2007
Reprinted in The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire, edited by Jeffery R.
Webber and Barry Carr, Rowman and Littlefield, 2012, pp 117 - 146.
Translated into German as "Barrio-Frauen und politische Partizipation im
bolivarianischen Caracas" in Caracas, sozialisierende Stadt Die „bolivarianische“
Metropole zwischen Selbstorganisation und Steuerung, edited by Dario Azzellini,
Stephan Lanz, Kathrin Wildner. Berlin: metroZones 12 Juni 2013 390 S., pp 215-267.
“Recasting Ideology, Recreating Hegemony: Critical Debates about Film in Contemporary
Cuba.” Ethnography, Volume 7, Number 3, Autumn 2006, pp 303 - 327.
“Transnationalism and Feminist Activism in Cuba: The Case of Magín.” Politics & Gender,
Volume 1, Number 3, September 2005, pp 431- 452.
“Fear of a Black Nation: Local Rappers, Transnational Crossings and State Power in
Contemporary Cuba.” Anthropological Quarterly, Volume 76, Number 4, Fall 2003, pp 575 –
608.
Translated into French as “Quand les rappeurs cubains marchandent avec l’Etat” in Cuba,
un régime au quotidien, edited by Vincent Bloch and Philippe Létrilliart, Paris: Choiseul
Édiciones, 2011, pp 177 – 208.
“Island Paradise, Revolutionary Utopia or Hustler’s Haven? Consumerism and Socialism in
Contemporary Cuban Rap.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, Volume 12, Number 3,
Fall 2003, pp 359 – 375.
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Chapters in books
“Who Can Stop the Drums? Fiestas as Sites of Popular Organization in Venezuela,”
Forthcoming, The Oxford Handbook of Protest Music, edited by Noriko Manabe and Eric Drott,
New York: Oxford University Press.
“Afro-Cuban Activists Fight Racism Between Two Fires,” Forthcoming, The Cuba Reader:
History, Culture, Politics, 2nd edition, edited by Barry Carr, Aviva Chomsky, Pamela
Smorkaloff, and Alfredo Prieto, Duke University Press.
“Between Two Fires: The Rise of the Afro-Cuban Movement,” Forthcoming, Routledge
Handbook of Afro-Latin American Politics, edited by Kwame Dixon and Ollie Johnson,
Routledge.
“Cultural Policies of the Chavez Government,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin
American History. Oxford University Press. Article published July 2017. doi:
10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.353 .
“‘Obama Nation’: Hip Hop and Global Protest,” The Hip Hop & Obama Reader, edited by
Travis Lars Gosa and Erik Nielson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp 88 - 93.
“Urban Social Movements in Venezuela.” Handbook of Social Movements Across Latin
America, edited by Paul Almeida and Allen Cordero Ulate. Springer, 2015, pp 195 - 204.
Translated into Spanish as “Movimientos Sociales Urbanos en Venezuela,” in
Movimientos Sociales en América Latina: Perspectivas, Tendencias, y Casos, edited by
Paul Almeida and Allen Cordero Ulate. CLACSO, 2017, pp 341 – 358.
“Cuban Hip Hop,” The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, edited by Justin Williams.
Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp 263 - 270.
“Informal Cities and Community-Based Organizing: The Case of the Teatro Alameda,” Cities
From Scratch: Poverty and Informality in Urban Latin America, edited by Brodwyn Fischer,
Bryan McCann and Javier Auyero, Duke University Press, 2014, pp 185 - 207.
“Culture and Neoliberal Rationalities in Post-Neoliberal Venezuela,” Neoliberalism, Interrupted:
Social Change and Contested Governance in Contemporary Latin America, edited by Nancy
Postero and Mark Goodale, Stanford University Press, 2013, pp 53 - 72.
“Los experimentos de Venezuela en la democracia popular: es possible democratizar un gobierno
capitalista?” in Democracias Nuevas o Restauradas: El Caso Venezuela, edited by Jorge Valero,
Fundacion Editorial el Perro y la Rana, 2012, pp 69 – 78.
“Culture and/or Postmodernism,” Handbook of Latin American Politics, edited by Deborah
Yashar and Peter Kingstone, Routledge, 2012, pp 407 – 418.
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“Malandreo Negro: Gangsta Rap and the Politics of Exclusion in Venezuela.” Comparative
Perspectives on Afro-Latin America, edited by Kwame Dixon and John Burdick, University
Press of Florida, 2012, pp 72 – 92.
“Radio Bemba in an Age of Electronic Media: The Dynamics of Popular Communication in
Chávez’s Venezuela.” Participation, Politics and Culture in Venezuela's Bolivarian Democracy,
edited by David Smilde and Daniel Hellinger, Duke University Press, 2011, pp 131 - 156.
“Made in Havana City: Rap Music, Space, and Racial Politics.” Havana Beyond the Ruins:
Cultural Mappings after 1989, edited by Anke Birkenmaier and Esther Whitfield, Duke
University Press, 2011, pp 173 - 186.
Translated into Portuguese as “Feito em Havana: Rap, Espaço, y Política Racial.” Outras
Ilhas: espaços, temporalidades e transformações em Cuba, edited by Olívia Maria
Gomes da Cunha, Sao Paulo: Aeroplano Editora, 2011, pp 425 - 445.
“Translating Hybrid Cultures: Quandries of an Indian-Australian Doing Ethnography in Cuba.”
Black Subjects: Race and Research in Africa and the Atlantic World, edited by Ben Talton and
Quincy Mills, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp 45 - 54.
“Gender, Popular Participation, and the State in Chávez’s Venezuela.” Gender and Populism in
Latin America: Passionate Politics, edited by Karen Kampwirth. University Park: Penn State
University Press, 2010, pp 202 – 220.
“Urbanizing the San Juan Fiesta: Civil Society and Cultural Identity in the Barrios of Caracas.”
Ethnographies of Neoliberalism, edited by Carol Greenhouse. Philadelphia: Penn Press, 2009, pp
96 - 111.
“Ethnicity, Civil Society and the Church: The Politics of Evangelical Christianity in Northeast
India.” Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Asia, edited by David Lumsdaine, New
York: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp 131 – 154.
“Proven Presence: The Emergence of a Feminist Politics in Cuban Hip-Hop.” Home Girls, Make
Some Noise!: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology, edited by Gwendolyn Pough, Mira Loma: Parker
Publishing, LLC, 2007, pp 5 – 18.
Sujatha Fernandes and Jason Stanyek, “Hip Hop and Black Public Spheres in Venezuela, Cuba
and Brazil.” Beyond Slavery: The Multi-Layered Legacy of Africans in Latin America, edited by
Darien Davis, Boulder and New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007, pp 199 – 222.
Articles in unrefereed journals, miscellaneous publications
“How Socially Engaged Activism is Transforming Cuba,” The Nation, February 22, 2018.
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“Afro-Cuban Culture and the Cuban Revolution,” Art x Cuba. Contemporary Perspectives since
1989. Exhibition Catalogue, curated by Andreas Beitin. Ludwig Forum, Germany, 2018, pp 95 –
121.
“Black Aesthetics and Afro-Latinx Hip Hop: ‘I’m an African,’” ReVista: Harvard Review of
Latin America, Special issue on Afro-Latinos. Winter 2018, pp 71 – 74.
“Hairdressers of the World Unite!” The Nation, December 28, 2017.
“Trump’s Cold-War Politics are Hurting Ordinary Cubans,” The Nation, November 16, 2017.
“What’s Left of the Bolivarian Revolution, NACLA Report on the Americas, 49:3, 287 – 289.
“We Need to Fight for all Undocumented Migrants, Not Just Dreamers,” The Nation, September
8, 2017.
“Cuban Connectivity: Cuba Enters the Digital Age,” Cultural Anthropology, Hotspots series,
March 23, 2017.
“We must imagine a post-Fidel Cuba alongside a post-Obama America,” The Sydney Morning
Herald, November 29, 2016.
“The Many Shades of Fidel Castro,” NACLA Report on the Americas, November 27, 2016.
“Democratic Socialism From the Ground Up,” Dissent, June 13, 2016.
“Afro-Cuban Activists Fight Racism Between Two Fires,” The Nation, May 24, 2016.
Reprinted in Cuba Facing Forward: Balancing Development and Identity in the
Twenty-First Century, David White, Lucas Spiro, Victor Silva and Anya Brickman
Raredon, eds. Affordable Housing Institution, Boston: Massachusetts, 2018, pp 140 -
150.
“Black Diasporic Dialogues in Post-Soviet Cuba,” NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol 48, No
1, 2016, pp 54 - 56.
“In Cuba, Will the Revolution be Digitized?” The Nation, March 18, 2016.
“What Do Cubans Think of Normalization With the United States?” The Nation, February 9,
2016.
“The Repeating Barrio,” The Nation, February 1, 2016.
“Domestic Workers at a Crossroads,” Dissent, August 19, 2015.
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“Do Cubans Really Want US-Style Internet Freedom?” NACLA Report on the Americas,
December 21, 2014.
“Why USAID Could Never Spark a Hip Hop Revolution in Cuba.” NACLA Report on the
Americas, December 16, 2014.
“Iggy Azalea and the Perils of Reinventing Oneself,” The Huffington Post, December 12, 2014.
“The Rhythms of Dissent: Language, race, and rap in the modern world.” The Common Reader,
October 2014, https://commonreader.wustl.edu/c/rap-world-language/
“Snapshot from the Economic War in Venezuela,” August 24, 2014, venezuelanalysis.com
Sujatha Fernandes and Alex Halkin, “Stories that Resonate: New Cultures of Documentary
Filmmaking in Cuba,” LASA Forum, Spring 2014, Vol XLV, Issue 2, pp 20 – 22.
“The Day the Music Died in Mali,” Op-ed, The New York Times, May 20, 2013.
Sujatha Fernandes and Tom D Wu, “The Motorbike Diaries,” Part I of a three-part series on
immigrant workers in New York City, American Prospect, March 13, 2013.
“Men at Work,” Part II of a three-part series on immigrant workers in New York City, American
Prospect, March 13, 2013.
“The Women Behind the Wheel,” Part III of a three-part series on immigrant workers in New
York City, American Prospect, March 15, 2013.
“The Mixtape of the Revolution,” Op-ed, The New York Times, January 29, 2012.
Reprinted in Current Controversies: Rap and Hip Hop, Volume 1, Gale/Cengage
Learning, December 2012.
“Straight Outta Havana,” Op-ed, The New York Times, August 6, 2011.
“What is ‘Post’ about Global Hip Hop?” Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990, Art
Catalogue, curated by Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt, Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
2011, pp 192 - 195.
Contributor to discussion on “The Bolivarian Process in Venezuela: a Left-Forum,” edited by
Susan Spronk and Jeffrey Webber, Historical Materialism Volume 19, No 1, 2011, pp 229 –
266.
“Elio Rodríguez: Of Joint Ventures and Sexual Adventures,” Queloides: Diez Años Después, Art
Catalogue, curated by Alejandro de la Fuente and Elio Rodríguez, January 2011.
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“The Revolutionary Imagination in Cuba and Venezuela.” NACLA Report on the Americas,
Volume 42, No 2, March/April 2009.
“Social Policy in Chávez’s Venezuela: A Radical Alternative or More of the Same?,” ReVista:
Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2008, Special Issue on Venezuela, edited by Fernando
Coronil, Jeffrey Cedeño, Vicente Lecuna, and Jonathan Eastwood, pp 40 – 42.
“Cuba’s Changing Leadership and the Dynamics of Civil Society,” Change in Cuba online forum
www.ssrc.org/changeincuba, Social Sciences Research Council, March 3, 2008.
“What does the “No” Vote Mean?” The Nation, December 6, 2007.
“A View from the Barrios: Hugo Chávez as an Expression of Urban Popular Movements,” LASA
Forum Focus, Winter 2007, pp 17 – 19.
“Mambíses, Malandros, and Maleantes: Imaginerías Colectivas de Luchas y Supervivencia en el
Rap Cubano y Venezolano.” Revista Iberoamericana, edited by Alejandro Bruzual, No 217,
Octubre – Diciembre 2006, pp 973 – 988.
“Saints of Venezuela: Reclaiming the Religious Fiestas of Slaves,” Colorlines: Race, Culture,
Action, Spring 2006, pp 51 – 52.
Regular columns in Economic and Political Weekly, April 2006 – August 2008.
Reviews
Review of Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández, Venezuela Reframed: Bolivarianism, indigenous
peoples and socialisms of the twenty-first century. Latin American Politics and Society 59(2):
162 – 165.
Review of Gareth Stedman Jones’ Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion, Australian Book Review,
March 2017.
“Every Encounter.” Review of Teju Cole’s Known and Strange Things, Australian Book Review,
November 2016.
Review of Joe Soss, Richard Fording, and Sanform Schram, Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal
Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Contemporary Sociology, Volume 42, Number 1, January 2013, 109 – 110.
“Freedom through a Pencil: The 1961 Literacy Campaign in Cuba,” review of documentary
Maestra, directed by Catherine Murphy, DVD, 2011. NACLA Report on the Americas,
September/October 2011, pp 39 - 40.
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“East of Havana,” review of documentary East of Havana, directed by Charlize Theron and
Clark Peterzon, Sony BMG Films, DVD, 2007. Journal of the Society for American Music,
Volume 4, Number 1, February 2010, 123 – 125.
“Global Hip Hop and the Africanist Aesthetic,” review of Halifu Osumare, the africanist
aesthetic in global hip-hop: power moves. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Dance
Research Journal, Volume 40, Number 2, Winter 2008, 97 – 99.
“The Rhythms of the Cuban Revolution,” review of Robin Moore, Music and Revolution:
Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba. Berkeley and LA: University of California Press, 2006 in
Contracorriente, Volume 1, Number 5, Otoño 2007.
CREATIVE WORKS
“Bamboo Wedding,” short story published in Aster(ix) magazine, May 11, 2017.
“A Pocket Full of Stories,” short story published in anthology, Of Sadhus and Spinners:
Australian Encounters with India, edited by Bruce Bennett, Susan Cowan, and Santosh Sareen,
Harper Collins, 2009.
Sujatha Fernandes, Waiata Telfer and Alec Heli, “Caught up in it,” Rap song recorded on an
album, Yabun “Song with a Beat:” A compilation of Sydney’s newest indigenous talent, Gadigal
Records, 1999.
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Foundations of Social Theory; Latin American Social Movements; Qualitative Methods;
Neoliberalism; Urban Ethnography; Art, Resistance, and Power; Caribbean Politics and Society;
Gender Studies; Race and Ethnicity.
TEACHING
Semester 2, “Qualitative Methods”
2018 Graduate Seminar, University of Sydney
First Year Sociology, “Introduction to Sociology”
“Power and Identity in a Global Era
Online Learning unit
Semester 1, “Contemporary Cultural Issues,” Department of Sociology, University of Sydney
2017
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Semester 2, “Class: Exploring Theory and Method,” Department of Political Economy,
2016, 2017 University of Sydney
Fall 2015 “Encountering Cuba”
Graduate Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center
Fall 2011 “Qualitative and Interpretive Methods”
Fall 2013 Graduate Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center
Fall 2015
Spring 2010 “Rethinking Neoliberalism”
Fall 2014 Graduate Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center
Spring 2010 “Immigrants in the Global City”
Undergraduate course, Department of Sociology, Queens College
Fall 2009 “Politics and Society in the Caribbean”
Undergraduate course, Department of Sociology, Queens College
Spring 2007 “The Peopling of New York City,”
Undergraduate course, William E. Macaulay Honors College, Queens College
Fall 2006 “Foundations of Social Theory”
Spring 2007 Undergraduate course, Department of Sociology, Queens College
Fall 2009
Fall 2010
Spring 2015
Spring 2016
Fall 2005 “Democratization and Decentralization in Latin America”
Undergraduate course, Department of Public Policy, Woodrow Wilson School,
Princeton University.
Fall 2004 “Political and Economic Reform in Latin America”
Graduate course, Department of Public Policy, Woodrow Wilson School,
Princeton University.
Spring 2004, “Politics and Society in the Caribbean”
Spring 2005 Undergraduate course, Department of Politics, Princeton University.
Spring 2004 Cuba Film Series, Sponsored by Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS),
Princeton University.
Fall 2003 “Art, Resistance, and Power”
Half-semester graduate course, Department of Public Policy, Woodrow Wilson
School, Princeton University.
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Spring 2002 “Freedom, State, and Society” (Teaching Assistant)
Undergraduate course, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago.
Fall 2000 “Problems in Gender Studies,”
Undergraduate course, Department of Gender Studies, University of Chicago. Co-
taught with Melissa Harris-Perry.
KEYNOTES AND OPENING/CLOSING PLENARIES
2018. “Storytelling and Media Organizing for Social Justice.” Speaker on Keynote panel at Our
(Digital) Humanity Conference, Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative, Lehigh University, April
2018.
2017. “‘I’m an African:’ Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe,” Keynote
address, International conference: “Conceived to Last: French Perspectives on Hip-Hop”
Maison des Metallos, Paris, February 2017.
2016. “Stories and Statecraft: Afghan Women's Narratives and the Return of Colonial
Feminism,” Spotlight panel on Gender, Culture, and Decolonisation, Crossroads in Cultural
Studies Conference, Association for Cultural Studies, University of Sydney, December 2016.
2016. “Invisible Labor: Tales from the Undercity,” Keynote address, The Australian Sociological
Association Conference (TASA), Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, November 2016.
2016. “‘I’m an African:’ Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe,” Towson
University, Opening Keynote lecture for Speaker Series on Afro-Latin America, Latin American
and Latino Studies, African and Africana Studies, April 2016.
2015. Midconference Plenary Lecture: “Citizenship as a Class Project: Good Immigrant Subjects
and their Others.” Cultural Studies: Annual Common Seminar Colloquium, University of
Pittsburgh, April 2015.
2015. Featured speaker on roundtable: “Popular Youth Culture, Gender, Afro-Diasporic
Identities, and Social Movements,” The 2015 Lozano Long Conference on Nuevas Disidencias:
Youth Culture, Transnational Flows and the Remaking of Politics in the Americas, Teresa
Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, February 2015.
2012. “Mixtape of the Global Revolution,” Speaker on plenary panel, International Hip Hop
Festival, Trinity College, Connecticut, March 2012.
2009. “Responding to the Crises of Our Time: Critique and the Sociological Imagination.”
Speaker on closing plenary panel at, “Sociological Reimagination: Crisis and Critique Today,”
First Annual Sociology Graduate Students Conference, Sociology Students Association, CUNY
Graduate Center, New York, November 2009.
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2008. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Conference on
“Hip Hop Cubano: A Showcase of Cuban hip hop, Culture, and Contemporary Art,” Keynote
address, Visiting Lecturers Committee, Program in Africana Studies, and the Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences, Lehigh University, April 2008.
2004. “Critical Perspectives on Civil Society in Cuba.” Speaker on opening plenary panel at
conference on, “Cuba Today: Continuity and Change since the ‘Periodo Especial,’” Bildner
Center for Western Hemispheric Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, October 2004.
SELECTED INVITED LECTURES AND PAPERS
I have given over 70 guest lectures by invitation, including the following more recent ones (since
2007)
2018. “Storytelling and the Fight for Migrant Rights.” Global Studies and Department of Latin
American Studies, University of California, Riverside, April 2018.
2018. “Storytelling and the Fight for Migrant Rights.” Department of Latin American and Latino
Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, April 2018.
2018. “Domestic Workers and Storytelling Advocacy: Competing Visions of Migrant Worker
Organizing,” Panel on Transnational Migrant Worker Organizing, Seminar on 21st Century
Coolies, UC Davis School of Law (via teleconferencing), March 2018.
2017. Panelist, “Venezuela in Crisis: Origins, Impacts, and Possible Futures,” International
Institute, University of Michigan, October 2017, via teleconferencing.
2017. Book Talk: “Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling.” Sociology Seminar
Series, University of Sydney, August 2017.
2016. “Curated Stories: How Storytelling is Hindering Social Change,” Joint Political Economy
and Anthropology Seminar Series, University of Sydney, October 2016.
2015. “Epic Narratives, Gendered Experiences: Mobilizing Personal Lives in a Collectivist
Project,” Invited panel presentation, The City is Ours, the Body is Mine: Urban Spatial Practices
in Contemporary Latin America, PhD Program in Art History and Center for the Humanities,
CUNY Graduate Center, April 2015.
2015. Speaker on panel, “Empowerment, Humanitarian Aid, and the Normalization of US-Cuba
Relations.” Latin American and Latino Studies Institute, Fordham University, February 2015.
2014. “Black Struggles and Immigrant Rights: Movement Narratives and Solidarity in a Post
Civil-Rights Era.” Racisms in Comparative Perspective Seminar, New York University,
November 2014.
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2014. “Storytelling as a Resource: From Truth Commissions to Camp Obama.” Politics and
Protest Workshop, Department of Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, October 2014.
2014. “Defining El Pueblo: State-Sponsored Storytelling and the Misión Cultura in Venezuela,”
Invited panel presentation, Media and Culture in Venezuela over the last decade, Department of
Spanish and Portuguese, Rutgers University, April 2014.
2014. “Storytelling as a Resource: From Truth Commissions to Camp Obama.” Americas South
Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, April 2014.
2014. “Invisible Women: Storytelling in the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign.”
Advanced Research Collaborative, CUNY Graduate Center, February 2014.
2014. “Defining El Pueblo: State-Sponsored Storytelling and the Misión Cultura in Venezuela,”
Invited panel presentation, Conference on “The Politics of the Popular in Latin America,” NYU
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), Institute for Latin American Studies
at Columbia University, March 2014.
2013. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Afro-Latin
Soundscapes seminar series, NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS),
November 2013.
2013. “Invisible Women: Storytelling in the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign.”
Center for the Study of Women and Society, CUNY Graduate Center, October 2013.
2013. “Invisible Women: Storytelling in the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign.”
Sociology Colloquium, Rutgers University, October 2013.
2013. “Radio Bemba in an Age of Electronic Media: The Dynamics of Popular Communication
in Chávez’s Venezuela,” Foro Latinoamericano 2013, Sponsored by Latin American Studies,
Department of Political Science, and Office of the Dean of the College. Carleton College. April
2013.
2013. “Experiments in Popular Democracy: Is it really possible to democratize the capitalist
state?” Intra-American Affairs Committee, New York City Bar Association, March 2013.
2012. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Invited panel
presentation at the Third Annual Ronald Walters Memorial Symposium on Racial Justice and
International Relations, School of International Service, American University, Washington DC,
November 2012.
2012. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Public lecture
sponsored by the Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Change, Global
Studies, and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
March 2012.
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2012. “What Comes After Neoliberalism? Collective Action and the Hybrid State in Chávez’s
Venezuela.” Public lecture sponsored by the Havens Center for the Study of Social Structure and
Social Change, Global Studies, and the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, March 2012.
2012. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Public lecture
sponsored by Sociology, Women’s Studies, Social Science, Black Studies, Global Studies, and
the Balfour Office for Multicultural Affairs, Providence College, March 2012.
2012. “Radio Bemba in an Age of Electronic Media: The Dynamics of Popular Communication
in Chávez’s Venezuela,” Power Through Community Speakers Series, Sponsored by Latin
American and Latino/a Studies, Political Science, Africana Studies, and Sociology, Vassar
College, February 2012.
2011. “‘I’m an African’: Black Aesthetics and the Making of a Hip Hop Globe.” Public lecture
sponsored by the Center for the Arts in Society and Department of History at Carnegie Mellon
University, and the Conflict Kitchen, Pittsburgh, September 2011.
2010. “Venezuela’s Experiments in Popular Democracy: Is it Possible to Democratize the
Capitalist State?” Seminar on “Análisis del Proceso Democrático Venezolano,” Permanent
Mission of Venezuela at the United Nations, December 2010.
2010. “What Comes After Neoliberalism? Collective Action and the Hybrid State in Chávez’s
Venezuela.” Harper College Dean’s Speakers Series, Department of Sociology, Binghamton
University, SUNY, March 2010.
2008. “Informal Cities and Community-Based Organizing: The Case of the Alameda Theatre.”
Conference on “Latin America’s Informal Cities in Comparative Perspective,” Program on Latin
American and Caribbean Studies and the Center for Historical Studies, Northwestern University,
Chicago, June 2008.
2008. “Culture and Neoliberal Rationalities in Post-Neoliberal Venezuela.” Paper read in
absence at Conference on “Revolution and New Social Imaginings,” Center for Iberian and Latin
American Studies, University of California, San Diego, May 2008.
2008. “Where is Madagascar? Critical Debates about Film in Contemporary Cuba.” Department
of Spanish and Portuguese, RULAS, and Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies, Rutgers
University, May 2008.
2008. “Everyday Wars of Position: Media, Social Movements, and the State in Chávez’s
Venezuela.” Conference on “Latin American Opposition to Neo-Liberalism,” Janey Program in
Latin American Studies and Observatory on Latin America, The New School, April 2008.
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2008. “Radio Bemba in an Age of Electronic Media: The Dynamics of Popular Communication
in Chávez’s Venezuela,” Conference on “The Popular Sectors and the State in Chávez’s
Venezuela,” Department of Political Science, Yale University, March 2008.
2008. “Made in Havana City: Rap Music and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba,”
Conference on “Transitions in the Cuban Revolution,” Department of History and Teresa Lozano
Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin, February 2008.
2008. “Competing Conceptions of Democracy in Chávez’s Venezuela,” Changes in the Andes
conference, The Center for Latin American Studies and Watson Institute for International
Studies, Brown University, February 2008.
2007. “Competing Conceptions of Democracy in Chávez’s Venezuela,” Public forum on
Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution at Home and Abroad: A New Geometry of Power? Yale Law
School, Yale University, November 2007.
2007. “Cuban Hip Hop.” Infinite Island Conversation Series: Popular Culture in the Caribbean,
Brooklyn Museum, November 2007.
2007. “Cuba Represent! Rap Music and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba,” Department of
Latina/o and Latin American Studies, Hampshire College,
November 2007.
2007. “Cuba Represent! Culture, State Power, and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba,”
Africana Studies Lecture Series, Queens College, CUNY, November 2007.
2007. “Cuba Represent! Rap Music and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba,” Department of
Hispanic Languages and Literature, Stonybrook University, October 2007.
2007. “Representing Cuba: Sujatha Fernandes and Elio Rodriguez in Conversation,”
Conversations in the Humanities, Center for the Humanities, CUNY Graduate Center, New
York, October 2007.
2007. “The Role of Cuba in US Politics,” Roundtable discussion sponsored by Equity Access
Institute, and the Caribbean Research Center (Medgar Evers College, CUNY), Metropolitan
College of New York, June 2007.
2007. “Cuba’s Racial Dynamics.” Panel sponsored by Inter-American Dialogue and Florida
International University, Washington DC, May 2007.
2007. “I’m Leaving with Chrissy/crisis”: The Poetics of Crisis in Cuban Film.” Conference on
“Disjunctive States: Crisis and Historicity in Cuba and Haiti.” Anthropology Department,
University of Chicago, April 2007.
2007. “Proven Presence: Feminist Politics of Cuban Hip Hop.” Panel on Women and Hip Hop in
the Americas, Program on Latin American and the Caribbean (PLACA) and Moynihan Institute
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of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University,
April 2007.
2007. “Proven Presence: Feminist Politics of Cuban Hip Hop.” Women's Studies Colloquium,
Queens College, CUNY, February 2007.
2007. “Cuba Represent!: Rap Music, State Power, and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba.”
African Diaspora History Forum, NYU, February 2007.
2007. “Cuba Represent! Rap Music and Racial Politics in Contemporary Cuba.” Bildner Center
for Western Hemispheric Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, February 2007.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2017. “Storytelling and the Politics of Trasformismo in an Obama Era,” Global Studies
Association, Havana, November 2017.
2015. “The Making of the Dreamer: Storytelling Trainings and the Electoral Turn,” Eastern
Sociological Society (ESS) conference, New York, February 2015.
2014. “Defining El Pueblo: State-Sponsored Storytelling and the Misión Cultura in Venezuela,”
Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia, Sydney, July 2014.
2013. Panelist in Regional Spotlight Session. “Empire State of Mind: New York as Cultural
Space,” American Sociological Association (ASA) conference, New York, August 2013.
2013. “This is About Basic Human Dignity: Storytelling in the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights
Campaign,” Critical Pedagogy and the Creative Writing Workshop, Manhattanville College,
June 2013.
2009. “Ethnography and Social Justice Approaches,” The Praxis of Feminist Pedagogy
Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, November 2009.
2009. “Murals, Cultural Identity, and Civil Society in Caracas,” Paper read in absence at Latin
American Studies Association (LASA) meeting, Rio de Janeiro, June 2009.
2008. “Made in Havana City: Reading from a Memoir about Global Hip Hop,” A Changing
Cuba in a Changing World, Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies, CUNY Graduate
Center, New York, March 2008.
2007. “Global Hip Hop, Technology, and the Creative Process,” American Anthropological
Association (AAA) meeting, Washington DC, December 2007.
2007. “Everyday Wars of Position: Media, Social Movements, and the State in Chávez’s
Venezuela.” Latin American Studies Association (LASA) meeting, Montreal, September 2007.
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2007. “Everyday Wars of Position: Media, Social Movements, and the State in Chávez’s
Venezuela.” American Sociological Association (ASA) meeting, New York City, August 2007.
2006. “Transnationalism and Feminist Activism in Cuba: The Case of Magín.” Cuba in
Transition: Pathways to Renewal, Long-Term Development, and Global Reintegration. Bildner
Center for Western Hemispheric Studies, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, March 2006.
2006. “Radio Bemba in an Age of Electronic Media: The Dynamics of Popular Communication
in Chavez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Studies Association (LASA) meeting, San Juan, Puerto
Rico, March 2006.
2005. “Neoliberalism, Violence, and Subjectivity in the Barrios of Caracas.” American
Anthropological Association (AAA) meeting, Washington DC, November 2005.
2005. “Gender, Leadership, and Machismo in Urban Popular Organizing in Venezuela.”
American Political Science Association (APSA) conference, Washington DC, September 2005.
2005. “In the Spirit of Negro Primero: Cultural Identity, Civil Society, and Popular Politics in the
Barrios of Caracas.” Western Political Science Association (WPSA) conference, Oakland,
March 2005.
2004. “Mambises, Malandros, and Maleantes: Collective Imaginaries of Struggle and Survival in
Cuban and Venezuelan rap.” Third International Caribbean Conference, Goiania, Brazil, October
2004.
2004. “Gender, Representation, and Transnationalism: Developing Avenues of Feminist
Activism in Contemporary Cuba.” American Political Science Association (APSA) conference,
Chicago, September 2004.
2003. “Remaking Cultural Hegemony: Film Publics, Critical Debate and the State in
Contemporary Cuba.” Northeastern Political Science Association (NPSA) Conference,
Philadelphia, November 2003.
2002. “Fear of a Black Nation: Local Rappers, Transnational Crossings and State Power in
Contemporary Cuba.” Conference on “Locations of Africa in the Black Atlantic,” Anthropology
Department, University of Chicago, April 2002.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND SERVICE
2004 - present, Reviewer: Contexts, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Business
Research, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Anthropological Quarterly, Wadabagei: A Journal of the
Caribbean and its Diasporas, Journal of Modern Craft, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and
Society, The Sociological Quarterly, American Anthropologist, Social Text, Palgrave-
Macmillan, Duke University Press, University of Michigan Press, African American Review,
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The Latin Americanist, Cuban Studies, Journal of World Popular Music, Bloomsbury, Dutch
Journal of Feminist Studies.
2017 – present, Higher Degree by Research (HDR) coordinator, School of Social and Political
Sciences (SPSS), University of Sydney
November 2016, Panel member on School of Social and Political Sciences (SPSS) review,
University of Sydney
2014 – present, Editorial board, Transition, Harvard University.
2010 – present, Advisory board, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center
2013 – 2014, Acting Associate Director, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate
Center
2014 – 2016, Member, Faculty Membership Committee (FMC), PhD Program in Sociology,
CUNY Graduate Center
2014 - 2016, Member, Executive Committee (EC), PhD Program in Sociology, CUNY Graduate
Center
2012 – 2016, Advisory board, Committee on Globalization and Social Change, CUNY Graduate
Center
2014 - 2015, Member, Personnel and Budgetary committee, Queens College, CUNY
2010 – 2014, Council Member, Section on Venezuelan Studies, Latin American Studies
Association
September 2014, reviewer for Fulbright Campus Committee, CUNY Graduate Center.
January 2013, Admissions committee, PhD Program in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center.
2014 - present, PhD supervisor
- Tommy Wu, Chinese migrant restaurant workers (CUNY Graduate Center)
- Jessica Turner, sharing economy and solidarity economies in Cuba
- Maksuda Sultana, garment workers in Bangladesh
2016 – present, Associate supervisor
- Emma To, political participation in Venezuela
2008 - 2015, Member of dissertation committees:
- Nirit Ben-Ari, Israeli and Palestinian Hip Hop, Defended dissertation in 2010.
- Kendra Fehrer (Brown University), Communal Councils in Venezuela, Defended
dissertation in 2014.
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- Jacob Lederman, Cultural tourism in Argentina, Defended dissertation in 2015.
- Cory Fischer-Hoffman (SUNY Albany), prisons in Venezuela, Defended dissertation in
March 2016.
- Natascia Boeri, Self-employed women workers in Gujarat, India, Defended dissertation
in September 2016.
- Marlon Burgess (NYU), hip hop and education in South Africa, Defended dissertation in
May 2017.
2010 – 2015, Member of orals committees for PhD students:
- Maria Heyaca
- Lihuan Chuo
- Tommy Wu
- Jacob Lederman
- Thomas Buechele
- Natascia Boeri
- Carmela Dormani
2011 - 2014, Editorial collective, Social Text
2011 - 2013, Editorial board, Contemporary Sociology
2008 - 2011, Editorial board, Women’s Studies Quarterly
2006 - 2010, Women’s Studies Advisory Committee, Queens College.
2008, Editorial board, NACLA Report on the Americas.
2007-8, Section head, Political Anthropology, Midwest Political Science Association.
2004, Organizing Committee, conferences at CUNY Graduate Center: “A Changing Cuba in a
Changing World.” March 12 – 15, 2008; Cuba; In Transition? Pathways to Renewal, Long-Term
Development, and Global Re-integration.” March 30 – 31, 2006; and “Cuba Today: Continuity
and Change since the Periodo Especial.” October 4 – 5, 2004, sponsored by the Bildner Center
for Western Hemisphere Studies
2004, Co-organizer, workshop at Princeton University: “Neoliberalism: Historical Perspectives
and Critical Possibilities.” October 15 – 16, 2004, co-sponsored by the Society of Fellows in the
Liberal Arts, Program in Latin American Studies, Princeton Institute for International and
Regional Studies, Davis Center for Historical Studies, Department of Anthropology, Woodrow
Wilson School
2004, Faculty supervisor, Princeton-in-Cuba Program, Princeton University
2003 - 2006, Faculty mentor, Mellon-Mays Minority Undergraduate Fellowship program,
Princeton University
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2003 - 2006, Senior thesis advising, Princeton University
2000, Instructor, Kenwood Academy-University of Chicago Program of Academic Excellence
for High School Juniors and Seniors