
The Whitney Humanities Center at Yale welcomes Monica Styles, assistant professor of Spanish at Howard University, as a faculty research fellow for spring 2025, in partnership with the ASCEND Initiative. Professor Styles will spend the semester at the Whitney Humanities Center advancing research for a book manuscript that promises to amplify historically underrepresented voices in the colonial literary canon.
Her project, “Afro-Peruvians in the Colonial Latin American Library Canon,” analyzes the intersections of race and gender in seventeenth-century writings about and by Afro-Peruvian healers. It examines a diverse array of source materials, including testimonies from Inquisitorial trials against Afro-Peruvian women accused of witchcraft and biographical writing about prominent Afro-Peruvian healers. Through these sources, Professor Styles explores how these narratives engaged with, shaped, and challenged colonial ideologies surrounding race and gender.
“I am thrilled to welcome Monica Styles to the Whitney Humanities Center and delighted that, during her time at Yale, she will develop her important research focused on recuperating Black history and agency in the early modern Americas,” said Cajetan Iheka, director of the Whitney Humanities Center. “Monica’s work aligns with the restorative vision of the ASCEND Initiative and will enrich our community during the fellowship period.”
The ASCEND initiative, announced in March 2024, aims to strengthen partnerships between Yale and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). To learn more about the opportunities for faculty collaboration, visit the ASCEND website.