Yomaira C. Figueroa

Yomaira C. Figueroa is Assistant Professor of Afro-Diaspora Studies in the department of English and African American & African Studies at Michigan State University. Written through the lens of decoloniality, women of color feminisms, and feminist philosophy, her book project, Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature, examines the textual, historical, and political relations between diasporic/exilic Afro-Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Dominican, and Equatoguinean poetics. Her second book project, Archive of Disappearances, focuses on Black Puerto Rican island and diasporic archival histories, photography, and film from the late 19th century through the present. Her published work can be found in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, the journal of Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, CENTRO Journal, and SX Salon. A scholar and organizer, she is a founder of both the MSU Womxn of Color Initiative and the collaborative hurricane recovery project #ProyectoPalabrasPR. Dr. Figueroa is a 2017-2018 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, a 2015-2017 Duke University Mellon Mays SITPA Fellow, and was awarded a 2017-2018 Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship.