Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre

Watufani M. Poe is a scholar of race, gender, and sexuality in Brazil and the United States. He earned his B.A. from Swarthmore College in Africana Studies, his Masters in History from Brown University, and his PhD in Africana Studies from Brown University. His dissertation entitled "Resisting Fragmentation: The Radical Possibilities of Black LGBTQ+ Activism in Brazil and the United States" is an ethnohistoric analysis of Black LGBTQ+ social and political activism in both countries to outline the ways Black LGBTQ people push for freedom across various social and political movement spaces. His work lies at the intersection of Africana Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Anthropology, and History focusing intently on questions such as the connections of the Black diaspora, Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Social Justice Movements. His research has been funded by the Social Sciences Research Council, the Mellon Foundation, The US Fulbright Program, The Tinker Foundation, and the Brown University Brazil Initiative.