Monica Rojas-Stewart

I am the Assistant Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies & African Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies. I grew up in Peru, where I have conducted extensive research among Afro-Peruvian communities along the coast as a participant performer since 1985 and later on during my fieldwork for my doctorate at the University of Washington. I am an anthropologist, and my academic work focuses on ethnomusicology, performance, and the African diaspora, and specifically looks at formations, negotiations, and projections of Peruvian blackness through performance. I recently combined my artistic and academic background to found and direct a Seattle-based non-profit organization called Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MAS), an Afro-Latino arts education initiative to raise awareness of the cultural contributions of peoples of African descent in Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean.