Tanya Saunders
University of Florida

Dr. Saunders' academic interests are in the areas of Coloniality Studies/Postcolonial theory, Cultural Studies/Sociology of Culture, Afro-Latino Studies, arts-based social movements, race, gender, sexuality and critical queer theory. She is interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora, throughout the Americas - especially Afro-descendent gender and sexual minorities, have used the arts as a tool for social change. She has published in journals such as Latin American Perspectives, The Caribbean Review of Gender and Studies, Black Women, Gender and the Family, Feminist Media Studies, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society and has published articles both in Cuba and in Brazil. She has several forthcoming articles and book chapters, the most recent (at the time of this writing) is a 2013 Chapter in the anthology Black Gender and Sexualities. She was also a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar to Brazil where she began work on her current project, which compares Hip Hop Feminism and Black Anarcha-feminism in Brazil.

Dr. Saunders also co-edited an issue of the Black Diaspora Review (2015) on the future of African Diaspora Studies in post-embargo Cuba.

Her current book Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution and Black Modernity (2015), is available from the University of Texas Press. She holds a PhD 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 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. -- aaas.osu.edu/people/saunders.425, 9/2015

Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity (Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Culture), 12/2015
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Articles/Articulos

Dr.Tanya Saunders: Cultures of Sexual Diversity in Latin America, 2014

A must read!  7/15/2021 Tan Ya: "IMHOP, Black U.S. Americans are still reeling from losing several generations of Black intellectuals/activists with a transnationalist - or as we say today - diasporic - consciousness when it comes to Black activism and consciousness. They were a huge counterweight to Black U.S. American folks - on the left and the right - who start with U.S. Black American exceptionalism as a point of departure for their political and economic agendas (centered on empowering U.S. African Americans). That counter balance was taken out in terms of its manifestation as a cohesive transnational Black movement. Yes, newer generations of us are here who share that vision, the one that takes NO STATE at its word and are suspicious of Eurocentric thought... I could go on."

Patria y Vida: Race, Class & Artists' Protests in Cuba  5/25/2021 Center for Latin American Studies University of Florida: With Alejandro de la Fuente, Lillian Guerra, Tanya Saunders - "Yet the song's popularity reflected years of growing outrage among Cuba's poorest, often largely Black communities. This panel analyzes the origins and meaning of that outrage as well as the state's rising repression of Black- and artist-led protests today."

DR. TANYA SAUNDERS RECEIVES FELLOWSHIP TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S HUTCHINS CENTER  3/22/2021 University of Florida: "Within Afro-Latinx Studies and African Diaspora Studies, Dr. Saunders’s research focuses on Sociology of Culture, Social Identity (Race, Gender, Sexuality), and Black Queer Studies. As a Fulbright Scholar to Brazil in 2011-2012, Dr. Saunders began work on their project “Hip Hop and Social Change: Rethinking Diaspora, Art and Political Praxis in Brazil.”"

Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution Black Modernity  9/15/2018 PALARA: by Tanya Saunders "Latin American nations are Black? Are we trying to keep secret that Latinx is also black? When we choose to (not) answer this, and to (not) focus on Black women and queer of color studies, to (not) redefine modernity, Cuban studies, Latin American Studies, then we contribute to the same conundrum that pretends that Western modernity is white, European, and somehow North American and not American (when the Americas are in the West, in the regional sense). For those of us who answer yes, with this book, we can work to let the secrets out."

Toward a Hemispheric Analysis of Black Lesbian Feminist Activism and Hip Hop Feminism Artist Perspectives from Cuba and Brazil  9/15/2016 Academia: "I am a Black, Queer, Gender-Nonconforming Woman from Baltimore, Maryland, who went to Cuba at the age of 20. I was interested in understanding the global hegemony of Cuba as an ideologi-cal counterbalance to U.S. American capitalist and imperialist discourses. Four years later, I met Las Krudas CUBENSI in Havana, Cuba. I remember entering La Madriguera, an alternative arts space in Havana, and seeingtwo black women (Wanda and Odaymara Cuesta) pass by. Our eyes met, we paused, and then we slowly continued walking while looking at eachother. And then, nearly in sync, we stopped and started chatting, I do notremember who decided to start inquiring about the other ?rst. Aestheti-cally, the three of us were marked by black queer aesthetics: dashikis, Afros,dreadlocks, timberlands, sagging jeans. When we started to chat, we realizedthat a lot of people had told us about each other. Eleven years later, in 2013, I received a call from Las Krudas; they were invited to Brazil byBrazilian black feminist activists to participate in the 2013 AfroLatini-dades: Afro-American, Afro-Latina, Afro-Caribbean Festival in Brasilia (http://afrolatinas .com.br/ ), and this expanded into their Brazil tour; I went on the tour as their manager."

Tanya Saunders: “El movimiento hip hop es muy amplio, pero creo que el elemento fundamental es la conciencia”  9/6/2016 Associacion Hermanos Saiz: "Hace poco, en el marco del Primer Festival Internacional de Rap femenino, que se celebra en el país, tuvimos la oportunidad de conocer a la doctora Tanya L. Saunders, profesora asistente en el Departamento de Estudios Afroamericanos y Africanos de la Universidad de Texas, Estados Unidos. La conferencia que impartió trataba acerca de su libro, publicado en el 2015, Hip Hop cubano underground: Pensamientos Negros, Revolución Negra y Modernidad Negra. En ella logró un debate que se centró en el papel de las mujeres en el hip hop y el activismo feminista en este género musical."

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2015): Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba  2/22/2016 Black Disapora Review: Co-edited by Tanya Saunders and Sandra Abd’Allah-Alvarez Ramírez.

Towards a transnational hip-hop feminist liberatory praxis: a view from the Americas  9/24/2015 Taylor & Francis: "The author argues that hip-hop feminism has come to a point where it needs to take a transnationalist turn if it is going to realize its potential to be a twenty-first century feminist praxis. The author highlights how people speaking from a U.S. American context inadvertently become a global referent for anti-oppression movements and subjectivities. Unfortunately, by virtue of being in one of the centers of global power, becoming a global referent of anti-oppression has the potential to distort and even render invisible the realities of Black women throughout the Americas. Through taking a transnational approach to hip-hop feminism, U.S. based advocates can increase the possibilities for hip-hop feminism to function as a politic of solidarity and mutual empowerment for Black women and girls throughout the Americas. Data are drawn from participant observation and interviews conducted in Havana, Cuba (1998–2010), and São Paulo, Brazil (2008–2013)."

Call for Papers: Black Diaspora Review Special Issue on the Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba  3/21/2015 Caribbean Studies Association: "The Black Diaspora Review (BDR) invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to the theme of Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba. We will accept contributions from a broad spectrum of disciplines including (but not limited to) history, sociology, psychology, anthropology and cultural studies. The editors invite submissions of original, previously unpublished manuscripts centered on the future of Cuban African Diaspora Studies in Post-Embargo Cuba, including the mission, areas of study, ideology, and methodologies. These aspects explore the ways in which Cuban African Diaspora Studies is interdisciplinary, includes intellectual production outside of the Cuban academy, and to consider its future in Cuba."

Convocatoria: Afrodescendientes en una Cuba desbloqueada  3/21/2015 Negra Cubana: "Editores invitados Tanya Saunders, Sandra Abd’Allah-Alvarez Ramírez y Pablo D. Herrera Veitia. Black Diaspora Review (BDR) le invita a participar en su número monográfico dedicado al tema Afrodescendientes en una Cuba Desbloqueada. La revista contribuciones en las siguientes disciplinas: historia, etnografía, sociología, psicología, antropología y estudios culturales. No obstante se aceptarán textos desde otras disciplinas que ayuden al estudio del tema." Guest Editors: Tanya Saunders, Sandra Abd’Allah-Alvarez Ramírez, and Pablo Herrera. The Black Diaspora Review (BDR) invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to the theme of Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba. We will accept contributions from a broad spectrum of disciplines including (but not limited to) history, sociology, psychology, anthropology and cultural studies. The editors invite submissions of original, previously unpublished manuscripts centered on the future of Cuban African Diaspora Studies in Post-Embargo Cuba, including the mission, areas of study, ideology, and methodologies. These aspects explore the ways in which Cuban African Diaspora Studies is interdisciplinary, includes intellectual production outside of the Cuban academy, and to consider its future in Cuba."

Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba  3/20/2015 Black Diaspora Review 5(2) Spring 2015: Entire issue devoted to Cuba, edited by Tanya Saunders - featuring Sandra Alvarez, Odette Casamayor, Yesenia Selier, Norma Guillard.

Book Reviews Flaming Souls: Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Social Change in Barbados  4/1/2014 Academia

The Cuban Remix: Rethinking Culture and Political Participation in Contemporary Cuba  6/17/2013 University of Michigan: "This dissertation examines the post-1959 activism of Cuba’s socially critical artists and intellectuals, and the effects of the Cuban state’s institutionalization of culture. I analyze the Cuban underground hip-hop movement as a case study of the ways in which Black artists and intellectuals in Cuba have employed cultural aesthetics to challenge contemporary inequalities organized around race, class, gender, and sexuality. I address the social context in which the Cuban underground hip-hop movement emerged by linking it to Cuba’s revolutionary project and to other counter-cultural social movements in Cuba’s history and from other post-colonial contexts. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic, historical, and interview-based research, the study engages with existing theories of the state, culture, civil society and the public sphere, but also reveals their limitations, particularly when applied to non-European contexts. As such, the dissertation offers significant insights into the relations between politics and culture, hegemony and resistance, history and the imagination of a better future, both in Cuba and beyond."

The Cuban Remix: Rethinking Culture and Political Participation in Contemporary Cuba  6/17/2013 Mixed Race Studies: "This dissertation examines the post-1959 activism of Cuba’s socially critical artists and intellectuals, and the effects of the Cuban state’s institutionalization of culture. I analyze the Cuban underground hip-hop movement as a case study of the ways in which Black artists and intellectuals in Cuba have employed cultural aesthetics to challenge contemporary inequalities organized around race, class, gender, and sexuality. I address the social context in which the Cuban underground hip-hop movement emerged by linking it to Cuba’s revolutionary project and to other counter-cultural social movements in Cuba’s history and from other post-colonial contexts. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic, historical, and interview-based research, the study engages with existing theories of the state, culture, civil society and the public sphere, but also reveals their limitations, particularly when applied to non-European contexts. As such, the dissertation offers significant insights into the relations between politics and culture, hegemony and resistance, history and the imagination of a better future, both in Cuba and beyond."

La Lucha Mujerista: Krudas CUBENSI 1 and Black Feminist Sexual Politics in Cuba  6/1/2009 UWI Center for gender: "This essay analyzes the discursive intervention of the Cuban Underground hip-hop group, Las Krudas CUBENSI, whose members are Black feminist activists. From 1998 to 2006, their work in Cuba centered on challenging the oppressive discourses concerning Black women and Black lesbians within Cuban society. Las Krudas link Black women‘s, particularly Black lesbians‘, oppression to the ideological legacies of colonialism. I argue that Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse is a Black feminist critique because of their choice of art, particularly hip-hop, as a political aesthetic. Las Krudas‘ feminist discourse has become a key discourse within the hip-hop community. The data for this essay are drawn from ethnography, textual analysis, and interviews collected from 1998 to 2006."

Saunders sheds light on Cuban underground culture  3/31/2008 Lehigh University: "Tanya Saunders spends many a day tucked into her office in Price Hall from morning until night, plugging away at her dissertation and preparing a book manuscript. But in recent months, her writing has been interrupted by the chime of her e-mail, which she quickly attends to. She permits the distraction because many such e-mails bring good news from Cuban musicians and artists who have sorted out schedules, documentation and paperwork in anticipation of joining her for an upcoming conference here at Lehigh. Saunders, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, has been planning a first-of-its kind event called “El Proyecto,” which will bring her dissertation and years of research on Cuban culture to life. “El Proyecto seeks to play a key role in the global hip-hop movement and in Cuba’s underground hip-hop movement,” according to Saunders. “It’s the first international platform to reunite Cuban underground hip-hop artists and the global hip-hop movement in performance, art and discourse.” "

Links/Enlaces

Vol. 5 No. 2 (2015): Afro Descendants in Post-Embargo Cuba 2/22/2016 Black Disapora Review: Co-edited by Tanya Saunders and Sandra Abd’Allah-Alvarez Ramírez

www.centerforthehumanities.org/programming/participants/tanya-l-saunders

www.latam.ufl.edu/people/center-based-faculty/tanya-saunders

scholar.google.com/citations?user=4K3t0LsAAAAJ&hl=en

aaas.osu.edu/people/saunders.425

The Cuban Remix: Rethinking Culture and Political Participation in Contemporary Cuba
Google Book

osu.academia.edu/TanyaLSaunders

tanyasau.wordpress.com

florida.academia.edu/TanyaLSaunders

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Tanya Saunders University of Florida

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Tanya Saunders
University of Florida