Education: B.A., California-Berkeley, M.A. and Ph.D., Pennsylvania.

Research interests: Folklore, Afro-Atlantic religious culture, and postcolonialism.

Essays: Special Guest Editor, Western Folklore , Topic: Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Diasporic Religion, article: A Spirit Possession, Havana, and the Night: Listening and Ritual in Cuban Fiction,(forthcoming); A Getting There and Back: The Road, the Journey and Home in Nuyorican Diaspora Literature. Writing Of(f) the Hyphen: Critical Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora (forthcoming); A Roadside Attractions: Learning from Diasporic Sensibilities in America's Classrooms. Navigating the Frontlines of Academia , (forthcoming); A Afrolatino Diasporas and Inventing Home in the Americas and Africa, Black Scholar (2000); A Iku and Cuban Nationhood: Yoruba Mythology in the Film Guantanamera ," Africa Today (1999); A Fearing Our Mothers: An Overview of the Psychoanalytic Theories Concerning the Vagina Dentata Motif, F547.1.1, The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (1996).

Professional services: Member, Convener/ Chair of the Folklore Latino, Latinoamericano, and Caribeño Section American Folklore Society, 2004

Awards and Honors: Faculty Research Quarter Award Program, University of Washington, 2004; Fellow, 6 th Annual Institute for Teaching Excellence, University of Washington Teaching Academy, Olympic National Resource Center, Forks, 2004; Fellow, Teaching Center for Curriculum Transformation, 2004; Fulbright IIE Grant for Research in Nigeria, 2001; West African Research Association Internship for Research in Lagos, Nigeria, 1999; Phi Beta Kappa, 1993-.

Complete CV