Africana Studies Spring, 2026, Lecture

Dr. Melanie Y. White, Assistant Professor of Afro-Caribbean Studies Department of Black Studies, Women and Gender Studies at Georgetown University. Professor White's newest research turns to Miami, a key city in the hemispheric Americas and a vital, though often negated and contested, site of Blackness. This emerging project explores how Black (including Afro-Latinx and Afro-Caribbean) artists, intellectuals, and communities have shaped the city's cultural identity. In doing so, it reveals Miami's deep entanglements with hemispheric structures of white supremacy and anti-Blackness, and positions the city as a critical nexus where these forces are confronted through Black critical thought and creative practice.