Biography
Advisor: Dr. Alex Borucki
Research Interests: Slavery, Diaspora, Atlantic Revolutions, Digital Humanities
Dissertation Title: Navigating Freedom: Black Diaspora, Foreign Expertise, and Resistance in New Granada, 1760s-1800s
Research Abstract: My dissertation explores the intertwined histories of Spanish deportation practices and the multi-racial people landing on the shores of New Granada (present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama). This project sets out to paint a more comprehensive picture of enslaved and freed peoples’ engagements with the law and its practice in New Granada. Focusing on the late colonial period, I look at numerous cases involving non-Spanish folk, particularly the Black diaspora born in Africa and the Americas, and their interactions with the Spanish colonial administration. My research points to the often-forgotten category of extranjero (foreigner) found in the records of the Black diaspora in Spanish America. In doing so, it gives us a better understanding of the process Black sailors, exiles, and communities dealt with when contesting their freedom as well as establishing a foothold in a preexisting social, legal, and racial hierarchy.