Areas of Research/Interest

Ethnographic film and visual studies; gender and sexuality; feminist anthropology; nationalism; late-socialist Cuba; Cherokee cultural politics

Publications

Review, Amalia Cabezas "Economies of Desire: Sex Tourism in Cuba and the Dominican Republic" Journal of Latin American Studies, Sept. 2010

“Debating Jineterismo: Feminist Critiques and the Cuban Sex Trade” Journal of Latin American Studies (Forthcoming, 2008)

Book Review, “Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the
Dominican Republic” (Forthcoming)

Book Review, “The Changing Dynamic in Cuban Civil Society” Journal of Latin American StudiesJournal of Latin American Studies (Forthcoming)

Films

Luchando (2006) - A non-fiction film chronicling the lives queer sex-workers in Havana. www.luchandofilm.com

Current News / Projects
Updated Sept 2010

I’m currently finishing my book manuscript, Queer Cuba: Intimacy and Inequality in the Post-Soviet Era. Based on nearly two years of field research, the book explores how the transition to late-socialism transformed the meaning and practice of non-normative sexualities in Havana. More specifically, I examine how middle and working class urban gays criticized the rise of same-sex prostitution, through discourses of labor and decency, to promote homosexuality as a form of cultural capital.

Over the course of the summer, I had the opportunity, with the generous support of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, to conduct follow-up interviews with middle and working class gay, lesbian, and travesti Cubans who have moved to the United States since my research. 

Last year, my documentary film, Luchando, which offers a verite look at the lives of four sex workers in Havana’s queer enclaves, won honorable mention at the 2009 AAA conference and continued to screen in academic and LGBT festivals, most recently in Seattle.

My first year of teaching at NYU included a graduate seminar in ethnographic video production and an undergraduate course on gender and sexuality. The graduate students produced exceptional short non-fiction films, two of which have been selected to screen in Viscult, the Festival of Visual Culture. Some of the lively debates from my Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality course can be viewed on the course blog here: http://anthgensex.blogspot.com/.

I also continued to serve as an advisor to the NYU Native Student’s Network, through which we organized a number of fry bread socials and academic events. I also served as an executive committee member for NYU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.