He received his Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College-Boston, an M.A. in English from Texas A&M University-College Station, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Southern University-Baton Rouge. His current book project, The Afroethnic Impulse and Renewal, examines how and why Afro-Latino authors use African American narrative strategies and cultural tropes to write themselves into the archive of U.S. literary and cultural history. He examines the ways in which African American and Afro-Latino intercultural affinities and encounters are redefining what it means and has meant to be “black” in the U.S.