Dr. Quinn
I’m a tenured associate professor in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies and the Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston.
I’m a queer Ghanaian & Jewish American scholar and poet who grew up in the U.S. South. I’m passionate about black art and film of Africa and the diaspora. My research focuses on transnational feminist theory, visual culture, and mixed race identities in the African diaspora, particularly in the U.S. and Dominican Republic. I’m interested in women of color feminist theory and feminist organizing–what works, what doesn’t–across transnational social networks, both online and in face-to-face coalition building.
In 2022-23, I was a fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and from 2023-24 I held a National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Award for writing my next book.
I teach race, gender and sexuality in courses on Caribbean culture, black girlhood, feminist theory, and globalization, and through contemporary black art and culture, and explore black women’s writings as theory. I’m committed to mentoring underrepresented scholars in the academy; I’m part of and work to sustain numerous academic networks that cultivate peer mentorship in the academy seek to make space for underrepresented scholars in academy.
Rachel Afi Quinn 