Lucia Suarez, associate professor of Spanish and director of the US Latino/a Studies Program, has received a special citation from the Dance Studies Association for her book “Dancing Bahia: Essays on Afro-Brazilian Dance, Education, Memory and Race.”
The special citation is an honor that is bestowed to acknowledge excellence in the dance studies field.
The following is the citation offered by the selection committee:
Through “Dancing Bahia: Essays on Afro-Brazilian Dance, Education, Memory and Race,” Lucía M. Suárez, Amélia Conrado, and Yvonne Daniel have created a field-establishing volume that examines the interstices of artistic practice and political activism in Afro-Brazilian dance works. Grounding research in the lives of Black people living at the center of the Black Atlantic, this volume locates Salvador da Bahia as a powerful nexus of dance practice and black activism, and wonderfully argues for its significance as one of the world’s epicenters for conversations on race, cultural memory, belonging, and human rights advocacy. With wonderful insights from a range of contributors on dance’s role in race relations, education and emancipation in Brazil, this book importantly contributes new Afro-Bahian knowledge to the field of dance studies.”
Suarez will be recognized for this honor at the annual Dance Studies Association Conference, during the organization’s annual awards ceremony.