Email: Shelly.Eversley@baruch.cuny.edu

Shelly Eversley teaches literature, feminism, and African American Studies in the English Department and in the Black and Latino Studies Department. She is Interim Chair of the Black and Latino Studies Department and Provost Faculty Fellow. She is Director of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Transformational Learning in the Humanities initiative, part of a $10M grant funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She has recently served as Academic Director of Faculty Fellowship Publication Program  at CUNY and is Founder of equalityarchive.com, an open educational resource on gender equality. She is the author of The “Real” Negro: The Question of Authenticity in Twentieth Century African American Literature (Routledge, 2004) as well as several scholarly essays on literature, feminism, and Black culture. She is also editor of the book Black Art, Politics, and Aesthetics in 1960s African American Literature and Culture (Cambridge 2021), and is completing new book titled The Practice of Blackness:  Cold War Surveillance, Censorship, and African American Literary Survival. She earned her undergraduate degree at Columbia University, and her graduate degrees at The Johns Hopkins University.

Email: Regina.Bernard@baruch.cuny.edu

Dr. Regina A. Bernard-Carreño was born and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. She is a graduating pioneer of the African American Studies Master’s Degree Program at Columbia University. She completed her M.Phil and Ph.D. Degrees in Urban Education at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Having taught in graduate programs at various colleges, she is now an Associate Professor of Black and Latino/a Studies at Baruch College, CUNY, where her courses are particularly focused on race, class, urban education and engaged activism. She is the author of Black and Brown Waves: The Cultural Politics of Young Women of Color and Feminism (2009), Nuyorganics: Organic Intellectualism, the Search for Racial Identity, and Nuyorican Thought (2010), and Say it Loud: Black Studies, its Students, and Racialized Collegiate Culture (2014).

She has also authored pieces for a wide variety of books, and collected editions. She has also published articles in the Journal of Pan African Studies, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and Small Farms Quarterly. Dr. Bernard-Carreño has been actively researching and writing about the cultural performance of food, food access and food racism in low income neighborhoods in New York City and abroad. Along with researching and writing, Dr. Bernard-Carreno has been designing scholarly projects and community products based on food access in NYC various neighborhoods. This work led to her invitation to speak at TEDx Manhattan in 2014. In 2015, she wrote and produced a short film entitled Ethel’s Magical Hands, about Guyanese feminism, culture and food production, (which was screened for the first time at TEDx Manhattan in 2015). Dr. Bernard-Carreño and her work has been featured in Vogue magazine, The Village Voice, and DNA Info. She is currently at work on her fourth book Pepperpot in New York: Guyanese Food Narratives, to be published with University of Arkansas Press.

Zamir Ben-Dan is a graduate of Baruch College, and has been teaching at Baruch College since Fall 2019. He is a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Practice in the Legal Aid Society. He spent four years in the Bronx trial office; now he works as a Community Justice Attorney in Brooklyn, where he provides legal services and trainings to non-profit organizations that do Cure Violence work. He is the author of “Law and Order Without Justice: A Case Study of Gravity Knife Legislation in New York City,” published in CUNY Law School’s law journal, and he has a forthcoming article in the Howard Law Review. He recently co-presented on Black Lives Matter at the Community Oriented Defense Conference held on July 15, 2020.

Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D. is currently a member of the Department of Black & Latinx Studies at Baruch College (CUNY). His teaching and research interests revolve around African-centered theory & methodology, with an emphasis on social and psychological theory. As an advocate of Prison Education, Dr. Carroll has also taught, held workshops and/or lectured in SCI-Chester, Shawangunk (NYSDOC), Sullivan (NYDOC) and Brookwood Secure Center (NYSDJJOY). His publications have appeared in the Journal of Pan African Studies, Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of the International Society of Teacher Education, Critical Sociology and Race, Gender & Class; he also has articles and chapters in numerous edited volumes. Dr. Carroll is an African-centered social theorist who is thoroughly committed to the African-centered imperative, one that is grounded in the creation and utilization of culturally-specific frameworks in order to understand and create solutions for humanity.  Dr. Carroll is also an organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, North East Political Prisoner Coalition and Black Alliance for Peace.  Dr. Carroll is fundamentally committed to “academic excellence and social responsibility” as originally articulated by the National Council for Black Studies.

Dr. Leon was born in Brooklyn, New York. She did her undergraduate studies at Barnard College and went on to receive her MA from Columbia University in Hispanic and Portuguese literature with additional courses in Latin American Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University in Latin American Literature. In Mexico, she pursued further studies in anthropology and political science.

Her doctoral thesis was a study of the poetry of the seventeenth century Mexican writer Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz in relation to the scientific discoveries of her time.  Dr. Leon has published critical articles as well as creative work about Mexico and Colombia. She has also written and published poetry in English and Spanish which has been anthologized in Suffolk Country Poetry Review, Confluencia, Bards’ Anthology among other publications in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia and Japan. Her book, My Beloved Chaos is published in English and Spanish.  She has a special interest in indigenous cultures of the Americas including their poetry and agricultural technologies, as well as ecological innovations taking place today in Latin America. Leon has participated in many poetry presentations in the New York area and is currently the secretary of the Hispanic Latino Cultural Center of New York.

Dr. Leon has taught Spanish language, literature and civilization in many universities within New York City as well as supervised and trained teachers of world languages. She also taught English for three years at the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia.

Email: Arthur.Lewin@baruch.cuny.edu

Dr. Lewin was born in Harlem, New York. His parents hail from Jamaica and Cuba. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Sociology from Queens College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He has been at Baruch since 1979.

His research has included topics in Jamaican political history, charismatic leadership in African America, Africa and the Caribbean and the class structure in Black America. He is the author of the popular book, Africa Is Not A Country. It’s A Continent! He is currently chronicling the origins and development of Black Studies departments on campuses across the country.

He teaches African History and Black Americans and the Mass Media. In the former, the class explores the history of Africa from 5,000,000 BC up until the present. In the latter, they examine the Black image in television, literature, newspapers and the internet, but above all they focus on the movies and the hypnotic imagery and symbolism that they contain. All are welcome to his class, as active students, or occasional visitors.

Email: Tshombe.Miles@baruch.cuny.edu

Tshombe Miles is an Associate Professor of Black and Latino Studies. He teaches the history of race, class, and ethnicity in Latin America, specifically Brazil. His work is particularly interested in the black diaspora in the Atlantic World. He is a member of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora and Associação Nacional de História (The National Association of History (in Brazil). Prof. Miles has presented papers at the University of Texas Austin, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, New York University, and invited to the City College and presented papers at conferences in France, Italy, Spain, and has regularly presented in Brazil. Professor Miles has published two books and several articles. Also, he has written articles for popular online outlets like the Root, and the African-American Intellectual Society. He has also written several opinion pieces for the newspaper O Povo, a popular newspaper from the northeast of Brazil. He earned a BA from City College of New York and held a Ph.D. from Brown University.

Books:

Miles, T. (2019). Race and Afro-Brazilian Agency in Brazil. Routledge/Taylor Francis. https://www.crcpress.com/Race-and-Afro-Brazilian-Agency-in-Brazil/Miles/p/book/9781138607248

Miles, T. (2012). A luta contra a escravatura e o racismo no Ceará (The Fight Against Slavery and Racism in Ceará). Fortaleza, Ceará: Demócrito Rocha. ISBN: 9788575295403

https://www.livrariadummar.com.br/a-luta-contra-a-escravatura-e-o-racismo-no-ceara

Articles and chapters in books

Miles, T. L. (2019). “From Invisibility to Visibility: The Afro-Brazilian Struggle in Ceará” In Alejandro Velasco (Ed.). New York, NY: NACLA Report on the Americas/The North American Congress on Latin America is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization. https://nacla.org/

Miles, T. (2019). In Lawrence Aje (Ed.), Reconstructing A Dismantled Past: The Case of Afro-diasporic History in Ceará, Brazil. Routledge Press/Taylor Francis.

Miles, T. ( 2018). “Reflecting on the Legacy of Brazilian Slavery and Reimaging Afro-Brazilian Agency.” To appear in History Compass (John Wiley & Sons). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14780542

Miles, T. (2017). Abdias Nascimento e a Tradição Intelectual Afrodiaspórica: no combate ao racismo (Combatting Racism: Abdias do Nascimento and the Afro-Diasporic Tradition). Revista de Ciencias Sociais (from the Department of Social Science and Graduate Program in Sociology of the Federal University of Ceará), Vol. 48, (Nº. 2, 2017), 106-136. ISSN 2318-4620. http://www.periodicos.ufc.br/revcienso/article/view/19496 

Miles, T. (2013). O Escolhido: Dragão do Mar. (The Chosen One: Dragão do Mar) Cadernos de Estudos e Pesquisas do Sertão, Quixada, Ceará V.1 (N.1). 51-60. ISSN 2446-4872. http://seer.uece.br/?journal=cadernospesquisadosertao&page=issue&op=view&path%5B%5D=80

Miles, T. (2013). “Black Leadership and their Idea of Freedom” (Republished). In fassil demissie (Ed.), African Diaspora in Brazil: History, Culture, and Politics, 114-142. ISBN 0415824818 Routledge Press/Taylor and Francis. www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415824811

Miles, T. (2012). “Black Leadership and their Idea of Freedom.” African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Routledge Press/Taylor and Francis), Volume 5 (Issue 2), 264-282. ISSN 1752-8631. https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rabd20

OTHER PUBLICATIONS:

Miles, T. (2016). 10 Things Afro-Brazilians Want You to Know In Danielle Belton (Ed.). The Root. www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/08/10-things-afro-brazilians-want-you-to-know

Miles, T. (2016). D.J. Marky entry in Dictionary of the Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography. In Henry Louis Gates and Franklin Knight (Ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199935796

Miles, T. (2016). Dragão do Mar entry in Dictionary of the Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography In Henry Louis Gates and Franklin Knight (Ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199935796

Miles, T. (2016). Jorge Ben Jor entry in Dictionary of the Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography. In Henry Louis Gates and Franklin Knight (Ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780199935796

Miles, T. (2016). Reflections on Race Diaspora and Nation In Keisha Blain (Ed.). New York, New York: African American Intellectual Historical Society. www.aaihs.org/reflections-on-race-diaspora-and-nation

Miles, T. (2014). “130 Years of the Abolition of Slavery” (130 anos da abolição da escravatura no Ceará). Fortaleza, Ceará: O Povo. www.opovo.com.br/app/opovo/opiniao/2014/03/25/noticiasjornalopiniao,3225667/130-anos-da-abolicao-da-escravatura-no-ceara.shtml

Dr. Rojo Robles is a writer, filmmaker, and professor born and raised in Puerto Rico. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras with a B.A. in Theater and an M.A. in Comparative Literature. He completed his M. Phil and Ph.D. Degrees in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures at CUNY’s Graduate Center. Having taught at various CUNY colleges, he is now a Substitute Lecturer of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College, CUNY, where his courses are particularly focused on Latin American, Latinx, and Afro-diasporic literature, film and intermedial cultures with an emphasis on Puerto Rico.

He has published articles in SX Salon| Small Axe Project, The Puerto Rico Review, Revista Cruce, Revista Iberoamericana and has been a cultural critic at 80grados.net for more than a decade. Dr. Robles has been researching and writing about cinegraphic and intermedial literature in Puerto Rico, Latin America, and US Latinx communities and on Black film in the Caribbean and the US. He is the editor of Pedro Pietri’s posthumous chapbook Condom Poems 4 Sale One Size Fits All (Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, 2019).

Along with teaching, researching, and academic writing, Dr. Robles has substantial work as a fiction writer, playwright, and filmmaker. Since 2004 he is the artistic director of the independent group, El kibutz del deseo, dedicated to producing plays, films, and publishing fiction and poetry. He is the author of Los desajustados/The Maladjusted (2015) and Escapistas (2017) and the writer, director, and producer of the experimental film The Sound of ILL Days (2017). He is currently at work on the book project Cinegrafía: literatura, espectadores y cinefilia contemporánea en Latinoamérica, and on a series of articles on the intersections and collaborations between Nuyorican and African-American filmmakers.

Dr. Rebecca L. Salois is an Adjunct Assistant Professor. She earned her B.A. and M.A. in Spanish from the University of New Hampshire. In 2010, she moved to New York and attended The Graduate Center, CUNY where she earned her M.Phil in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages and her PhD in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures.

From 2004 to 2010, Rebecca taught high school Spanish in New Hampshire. She has taught Spanish language and literature at Brooklyn College, Fashion Institute, and Hunter College. In 2012, she began teaching World Literature in the Modern Languages and Comparative Literature Department at Baruch and transferred to the English Department in 2015. She joined the Black and Latino Studies Department in 2020.

In her current research, she focuses on theater and other visual literatures from Cuban and US Latinx communities. Her dissertation, entitled Choteo cubano: Humor as a Critical Tool in Twentieth-Century Cuban Theater, examined the applications and uses of Cuban humor in theater texts from the 1930s, 1960s, and 1990s, taking into consideration the social, political, and economic conditions on the island at those times. Going forward, she seeks to expand her research to include performance, humor, identity, and politics within Latinx communities in the United States, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Additionally, Rebecca hosts the podcast Why Do We Read This? which connects world literature with pop-culture and current events. She has studied in Spain, Mexico, and Cuba and traveled to various other countries. She currently lives in Brooklyn.

Joseph Schloss is an interdisciplinary scholar and writer who studies how people use hip-hop culture to develop new perspectives on social, cultural and political issues. A past recipient of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Charles Seeger Prize, he is the author of Foundation: B-Boys, B-Girls and Hip-Hop Culture in New York (Oxford University Press: 2009), and Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop (Wesleyan University Press: 2004/2014), which won the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Book Prize in 2005.

More information can be found at his website, http://josephschloss.com