About Me

I am a socio-cultural anthropologist with a focus on Cuba and the African diaspora in the Caribbean. My topical interests are in tourism, entrepreneurship, national identity, racial and gender constructions, popular cultural practices, and critiques of capitalism. Having conducted ethnographic research in Cuba since 1999, my first book-length ethnography — entitled Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha (Oxford University Press 2011) — describes the shifting intersections of race, class, sexuality, and belonging. My current project focuses on Cuban women of African descent who own private room rentals in the hard currency tourism sector. From my research interests, I have developed a course curriculum that considers the global processes that have shaped cultural practice in Cuba and the Caribbean historically and analyzes a variety of popular responses to the pressures of global capitalism today. In addition to my research and teaching pursuits, I have presented and written for various audiences about race and belonging in the United States.

I am currently Director of Global Black Studies and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Clemson University. Previously, I served as Chair of Women & Gender Studies (2020-2021) and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2006-2021).

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