Professor Castañeda’s lecture will introduce students to the baianas de acarajé, iconic street food vendors who sell West-African originating food and who are regarded as important cultural figures and representatives of African authenticity and Afro-Brazilian tradition. We will historicize their experiences in Brazil to demonstrate the ways in which their culmination into cultural icons has not been linear. We will pay particular attention to the intersections of gender and race when examining the case of the baianas and place their stories in conversation with the histories of Black Brazilian women more broadly. The session will aim to explore and expand our understanding of politics, belonging, and power.
Vanessa Castañeda earned her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in AfroLatin American Studies at Dartmouth College. Using interdisciplinary methodologies, including archival research and twenty months of community-based ethnographic fieldwork with the Association of Baianas (ABAM), Vanessa's research reconceptualizes the baianas as political agents of Black feminism for self and collective liberation.
This event is sponsored by the Department of History and the HUB Cultural Center.