Lorgia García Peña
Lorgia García Peña is an ethnic studies scholar. She is a professor at Tufts University in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora and is the author of "The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation and Archives of Contradiction". Early life and education. García Peña grew up in the Dominican Republic until she was 12 years old, when she immigrated to the United States, joining her parents who had departed earlier for Trenton, New Jersey. She finished high school at 15 and, as her parents felt she was too young to go away to college, enrolled  at Rutgers University. She subsequently earned a master's degree in Spanish and Latin American literatures and cultures from Rutgers and a master's and Ph.D. in American cultures from the University of Michigan. Career. García Peña began teaching at the University of Georgia in 2010. She taught at Harvard University from 2013 to 2021, jointly appointed in the Romance Languages and Literature department and the History and Literature program. She served as assistant professor, then Roy G. Clause Associate Professor. She was denied tenure in November 2019, and though different groups repeatedly urged the university to revisit the decision , the university did not. The case is pending before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, as García Peña alleges it was part of a pattern of discrimination she encountered across her time at Harvard. She was appointed to a tenured position at Tufts University in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora and begins teaching in fall 2021. The position is supported by a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. García Peña was selected by the Marguerite Casey Foundation as a 2021 Freedom Scholars, honoring "emerging leaders in academia whose research can provide critical insight  to social justice leaders and whose ideas encourage all of us to imagine how we can radically improve our democracy, economy and society." The award includes a $250,000 grant. Works. García Peña is author of "The Borders of Dominicanidad: Race, Nation and Archives of Contradiction", published by Duke University Press in 2016. The book won 2017 National Women's Studies Association Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize, the 2016 LASA Latino/a Studies Book Award, and the 2016 Isis Duarte Book Prize in Haiti and Dominican Studies. Reviewing "The Borders of Dominicanidad" for "The Latin Americanist", Sobeira Latorre said the  book “offers a historically grounded, meticulously researched, and thoughtful analysis of how dominant narratives of Dominican racial and national identity developed, and the ways in which these narratives have historically excluded racialized people.” The Spanish translation received national attention in the Dominican Republic and the Spanish speaking diaspora. García Peña has two forthcoming books, "Community as Rebellion: A Syllabus for Surviving Academia as a Woman of Color" (Haymarket Books 2022) and "Translating Blackness: Latinx Colonialities in Global Perspective" (Duke University Press, 2022). García Peña has also written on social and political issues in "The New York Times", "The Boston" "Review , NACLA", "Asterix", "Aperture Magazine" among other outlets.