Tanya Saunders
Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is an associate professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at University of Florida. As a sociologist interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas uses the arts as a tool for social change. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar to Brazil, Dr. Saunders began work on their current project about Black Queer Artivism in Brazil. This is a continuation of their research on race, gender, sexuality, and arts-based social movements in Cuba. In 2016 they, and their colleagues at the State University of Santa Caterina (UDESC) and the Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo (PUC-SP), were awarded the Abdias do Nascimento Award for Academic Development, funded by CAPES, Brazil. The grant-funded faculty, researcher, and student exchanges and collaborations between the University of Florida, UDESC, and PUC-SP from 2017-2019. They were also the UF LGBTQ Affairs Faculty Fellow for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Dr. Saunders holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Master of International Development Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
