Celine Ayala

PhD Candidate - ABD

Research Interests

Race and Ethnicity , Gender and Sexuality , Intersectionality Studies , Critical Race Theory , Qualitative Methods

Afrolatinidad, Blackness, Urban Sociology

Research Statement:

Celine’s research aims to call out anti-blackness in Latinx communities/spaces and challenge the assumed homogeneity of Black and Latinx identities with an emphasis on the former. Using what she calls an Afrolatin Critical Theory of Race, she rests on the intellectual manifestations of everyday Black and Afrolatinx thinkers, creators, and artists to understand Afrolatinx experiences of Blackness. The purpose of her research is to focus on the “Afro” in Afrolatinidad and demonstrate that Blackness and experiences of Blackness are not monolithic and vary based on ethnicity, nation, phenotype, street race (López et al., 2017), language, and geographic location.