EDUCATION 

2013 PhD Department of Performance Studies, New York University 

2004 MA Department of Women’s Studies, University of Arizona 

2001 BFA 3D/Sculpture Studies, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 

Minor: Women’s Studies 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS 

2014–2025 Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY

Affiliate, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Program

Promoted with Tenure in 2020
Resigned 2025 

2023–2024 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Fellow, State University of New York, NY

2022 External Appraiser, “Out of the Fringes: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis of Postsecondary Acting Training in English Canada,” PhD Thesis by Sarah Robbins, Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, University of Toronto 

2023 Summer Chair, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 

2017 Board Member, Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities 

2017–2018 Board Member, Diversity & Inclusion Council

2016–2023 Founder, People of Color Faculty and Staff Network 

2015–2019 Founder and Director, LGBTQIA+ Living Learning Community

2015–2018 Board Member, Digital Arts, Sciences, and Humanities Lab 

2013–2014 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Arts & Humanities, NYU Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE 

2012 Adjunct Instructor, New York University, NY

2011 Adjunct Instructor, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY

2009 Adjunct Instructor, Mercer County Community College, Windsor Township, NJ

LEADERSHIP

2025–Present President, Executive Council, National Women’s Studies Association

• Author 2025–2027 Strategic Plan, An Invitation to a Collective Reorientation

• Serve as the Association Spokesperson

• Chair Executive Council, Governing Council, and Advisory Board

• Serve ex officio on Finance Committee, Leadership and Development Committee, and Governance and Compliance Committee

• Co-chair annual conference, co-facilitate member engagement initiatives, co-chair the Book Awards & Prizes Committee, and act as the Association’s spokesperson in partnership with Executive Director

• Cultivate relations between academic-facing feminist groups and public-facing feminist organizations.

• Develop operational protocols according to policies as stated in the Bylaws

• Approve budget and oversee the fiscal health and integrity of the association

2022–2025 Founder and Co-Chair, Puerto Rican Feminisms Interest Group, National Women’s Studies Association 

• Galvanize members to form the group, draft the bylaws, and create  sponsored sessions for the annual conference

• Coordinate annual conference activities and facilitate Business Meetings

• Liaise between interest group members and the National Office to organize the 2025 pre-conference “Beyond Colonial Constraints: Cuir Feminist Praxis as Rupture and Healing across the Archipelago”

2023–2025 Member-at-Large, Governing Council, National Women’s Studies Association

• Revise association bylaws in partnership with Governing Council

• Organize and host virtual Member Community Spaces

• Chair “Settler Colonialism and Sovereignty” conference proposal review committee

• Moderate Presidential Session and member sessions at annual conferences

• Solicit reviewers for Book Awards and Prizes Committee and serve as reviewer

• Serve on the Leadership and Development Committee working primarily on elections.

2021–2024 Secretary, Executive Council, Puerto Rican Studies Association

• Manage association’s documents in a shared Google Drive

• Ideate and coordinate conference and symposium logistics

• Co-author statements, protocols, and conference/symposium documentation with other EC members

• Manage association membership and email inbox, delegate required responses

2015–2018 Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Arts and Performance Studies Interest Group, National Women Studies Association

• Co-author sponsored session call for proposals

• Moderate interest group sessions

• Liaise with National Office on behalf of the group

PUBLICATIONS

Edited Anthology 

2025 Porque Estamos Aquí: Puerto Rican Feminisms Against Empire. New York: The Feminist Press. 

Monograph 

2018 Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora. New York: New York University Press. 

Peer-Reviewed Articles 

2023 “Not Another Essay on Care Work in Academia!” Theatre History Studies 42 (1): 95-103. 

2021 “‘It’s for Now, While We’re Together’: Diana Oh’s Queer Feminist of Color Bridgework at the Ancram Opera House.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 41 (3): 29–55.

2020 “Digital Diasporic Tactics for a Decolonized Future: Tweeting in the Wake of #HurricaneMaria.” Theatre History Studies 39 (1): 185–99. 

2017 “Writin’, Breakin’, Beatboxin’: Strategically Performing ‘Women’ in Hip-Hop.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43 (1): 175–200. 

2017 “Performing Queer Mamí on Social Media: Gender-Fluid Parenting as a Practice of Decolonisation.” Performance Research, 22 (4): 71–74. 

2014 “Critical Intimacies: Hip Hop as Queer Feminist Pedagogy.” Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory, All Hail the Queenz: A Queer Feminist Recalibration of Hip Hop, 24 (1): 1–7. Co-authored with Shanté P. Smalls. 

2013 “Be About It: Graffiteras Performing Feminist Community.” TDR: the journal of performance studies 57 (3): 88–116.

Catalogue Essays

2023 “A Wall of Their Own: How Graffiti Grrlz Style Their Place in Hip Hop.” The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, curated by Asma Naeem and Gamynne Guillotte, The Baltimore Museum of Art. 

2013 “Wipe It Off and I Will Paint Again: An Interview with Suzeeinthecity.” Muslima: Muslim Women’s Art & Voice, curated by Samina Ali, International Museum of Women Exhibition. 

Book Reviews

2025 “The Story of What Is Broken Is Whole: An Aurora Levins Morales Reader by Aurora Levins Morales (Review).” Centro Journal 36 (1)1. 

2020 “Ricanness: Enduring Time in Anticolonial Performance by Sandra Ruiz (Review).” TDR: the journal of performance studies 64 (4): 173–75. 

2013 “Plays from the Boom Box Galaxy: Theater from the Hip-Hop Generation by Kim Euell and Robert Alexander,” and “Say Word!: Voices from Hip Hop Theater by Daniel Banks,” TDR: the journal of performance studies (T217). 

2012. “Returning to What We Know: Nicole Fleetwood’s Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness,” Women & Performance: a Journal of Feminist Theory 22:2-3. 

Book Preface

2021. “Prefacio: Pa’lante con LasTesis (Foreword: Forward con LasTesis).” In Theatre & Feminism, by Kim Solga, translated by Milena Grass Kleiner. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. 

Book Chapters 

2026 “Notes on Hip Hop, Graffiti Subculture, and Performing Anti-Imperial Feminism in the United States,” In Hip-Hop and American Culture, edited by Rob Turner, Cambridge University Press.

2019 “Yo Soy Boricua Feminista, Pa’que Tu Lo Sepas!: Notes from a DiaspoRican on Performing Outsider Identity,” Latina Outsiders: Remaking Latina Identity, Eds. Grisel Y. Acosta, Chapter 25. London; New York: Routledge. 

2016 “Daring to Be ‘Mujeres Libres, Lindas, Locas’: An Interview with the Ladies Destroying Crew of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.” In La Verdad: An International Dialogue on Hip Hop Latinidades, edited by Melissa Castillo-Garsow, 203–13. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 

Works In Progress and/or Under Review 

Monographs 

Writing from the Enclosure: Notes on Transformation, Collectivity, and Hope from a Butterfly Doula (in progress) 

DiaspoRican: Notes on Belonging from the Belly of Empire (in progress) 

Anthology Essay 

“Pa la lucha, nosotrxs seguiremos poniendo nuestro arte”: Colectivo Moriviví’s Rican Feminist Praxis,” In Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Puerto Rico, edited by Joaquín Villanueva, Marisol LeBrón, and Rafael Capó García, Duke University Press. (under review) 

PRESENTATIONS

Invited Lectures

2023 “Hip Hop at 50: New Perspectives, Alternative Genealogies,” Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, September. 

2023 In Conversation with Iris Morales on “Revisiting Herstories: The Young Lords Party,” Piragua Art Space, New York, NY, May. 

2018 “Twitter in the Classroom and Digital Feminist Movement,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Performance Studies Pre-Conference, Boston, MA, August. 

2017 Keynote Address, “Painting Like a Grrl: The Aesthetics and Politics of International All-Grrl Graffiti Jams,” Wall/Therapy Conference, The Little Theatre, Rochester, NY, September. 

2017 “‘I am not a Feminist. I am a Graffitera:’ Performing Feminist Community without Feminist Identity,” Engaged Liberal Arts and Science Series, Bard College, Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, March. 

2017 “‘At One Point We All Rebelled’: Hip Hop Graffiti Grrlz and the Performance of Feminist Masculinity,” Agora Speaker Series on “Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Program,” University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, March. 

2015 “All-Grrl Jams: Transforming Precarious Belonging Through Collective Performance,” Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, October. 

2015 “Gender, Street Art, and Transnational Feminist Movement,” School of Oriental and African Studies Lecture Series, University of London, London, England, March. 

2012 “Gender Difference in Graffiti Subculture,” Hip Hop Scholar-Artist Series, Davidson College, Davidson, NC, October. 

2012 “Feminism on the Wall/Thriving in the Space Between.” TEDWomen, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C., December.

Conferences

2025  “Seguimos: Honoring the Lineage, Legacy, and Leadership of Puerto Rican Feminisms,” Plenary Organizer and Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, November.

2024 “‘Displaced, Diasporic, Dispossessed, We Are Coming Together’: Activating and Amplifying Critical Feminist Connections Within and Beyond Borders, Nation States, and Empire,” Presidential Session Organizer and Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, Detroit, MI, November.

2024 “Broadcasting Feminist Performance,” Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, Detroit, MI, November.

2024 “Militarism and Masculinity: Navigating Race and Gender Dynamics in War and Patriotism,” Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, Detroit, MI, November. 

2024 “Caribbean Feminist Organizing,” Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, Detroit, MI, November. 

2023 “Critical Conversations in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice,” DEISJ Conference, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York, November. 

2023 “Universal Design and Inclusive Online Learning,” moderator, DEISJ Conference, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York, November.

2022 “Rican Feminist Futures,” Roundtable Organizer and Moderator, National Women’s Studies Association, Minneapolis, MN, November. 

2022 Plenary Conversation with Aurora Levins Morales on “Moriviví,” Puerto Rican Studies Association, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA, October. 

2022 “Rican Feminist Futures,” Roundtable Organizer and Participant, Puerto Rican Studies Association, Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, MA, October. 

2019 Author Meets Critic Session: “Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora,” National Women’s Studies Association, San Francisco, CA, November. 

2019 “The Calderón is Not Only for Cooking: Angelica Negrón and the Sound of Puerto Rico in the Diaspora,” National Women’s Studies Association, Panel Organized: “Boricua Resistance Strategies Aquí y Allá,” San Francisco, CA, November. 

2019 Author Meets Critic Session: “Ricanness,” Organizer and Critic, Puerto Rican Studies Association Biennial Symposium, University of Texas at Austin, TX, October. 

2019 “Bisexual Boricua: A Performative Testimonia on the Limitations of Feeling (Brown and Queer) and of Feeling Limitations,” Performance Studies international 25, University of Calgary, Canada, July.

2018 “Diasporicans Decolonizing Academia/Decolonizing Diasporicans in Academia,” Organizer, Puerto Rican Studies Association, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, October. 

2018 “Para Mi Gente: Micropoems from a Diasporic Bisexual Boricua in the Wake of Maria,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Boston, MA, August. 

2017 “Manifesting Pedagogy: Manifestos as Pedagogical Tools,” National Women’s Studies Association, Panel Organizer and Chair, Baltimore, MD, November 2017. 

2017 “The Politics of Latina Feminist Overperformance within the Academy,” Performance Studies international 23, Panel Organized: “Feminist Overflows,” Hamburg, Germany, June. 

2016 “Performing Mamí on Social Media: Refusing to Reproduce the Coloniality of Gender and Sexuality,” National Women’s Studies Association, Panel Organized: “Performing Motherhood: Practices of Decolonization,” Montreal, Canada, November. 

2016 “It Was No Change the World Bullshit”: Chicana Graffitera JERK’s Excessive Feminist Masculinity,” Latin American Studies Association, New York City, NY, May. 

2015 “Fierce Feminist Takeovers: Street Art’s Ephemeral Aesthetics and the Transformation of Precarious Belongings,” National Women’s Studies Association, Panel Organized: “Ephemeral Occupations: Precarity and Feminist Reclamations of Place,” Milwaukee, WI, November. 

2014 “A ‘Jam’ of One’s Own: The Few & Far All Female Graffiti Collective at Art Basel: Miami Beach,” NYU Abu Dhabi Annual Research Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE, February.

2012 “Stylin’ for Space in Hip Hop,” The Queerness of Hip Hop Symposium, Harvard University, Boston, MA, September. 

2012 “Spitting like a ‘Woman’: Performative Gender Lessons in Beatboxing,” Show and Prove: The Tensions, Contradictions, and Possibilities of Hip Hop Studies, Panel Organized: “Women of the 5th Element: Performing Subjectivity through Beatboxing,” New York University, April.

2011 “The Political Potential of Trans-Ephemerality: (Re)Presenting the First Female Graffiti Crew in Rio de Janeiro,” Performance Studies international 17, Utrecht, The Netherlands, May. 

2010 “Shifting Aesthetics: Performing Graffiti Crews in a Global and Virtual World,” Performance Studies international 16, Toronto, Canada, June. 

2003 “Images Performing Identities: Questioning Cultural Production and Consumption through Visual Media,” National Women’s Studies Association, New Orleans, LA, June. 

2002 “Contextualizing Theories and Working Practices: Women’s Studies Classroom as Progressive Think Tank,” National Women’s Studies Association, Las Vegas, NV, June. 

EDITORIAL REVIEW 

2024 Manuscript Reviewer, University of Florida Press 

2025 Reviewer, Conference Proposals, National Women’s Studies Association 

2021 Research Proposal Evaluator, Austrian Science Fund 

2021 Peer Reviewer, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 

2021 Manuscript Reviewer, Gender Studies Catalogue, Routledge 

2020 Peer Reviewer, Journal of Hip Hop Studies 

2020 Peer Reviewer, Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 

2019 Research Proposal Evaluator, Le Studium 

2019 Reviewer, Conference Proposals, National Women’s Studies Association 

2018 Manuscript Reviewer, Gender Studies Catalogue, New York University Press 

2017 Peer Reviewer, Women’s Studies Quarterly 

2016 Peer Reviewer, National Political Science Review 

2013–2016 Review Panelist, Career Development Grants, American Association of University Women

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2009–2012 Editor, TDR: the journal of performance studies, New York, New York 

2007–2008 Director of Volunteer Services, Hope Alliance, Round Rock, TX 

2005–2006 Student Life Coordinator, Austin Community College, Austin, TX

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS

2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2015. Individual Development Award, United University Professionals

2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2016. SUNY New Paltz Major Award for Professional Achievement 

2018 Faculty Research Award, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, SUNY New Paltz 2017 Exploration in Diversity and Academic Excellence Award, SUNY 

2016 Research Award, SUNY New Paltz 

2012 American Fellowship, American Association of University Women 

2012 Honorable Mention, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship 

2010 Paulette Goddard Research Award, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University