Monica Rojas-Stewart (She/her)

Monica Rojas-Stewart (Lima, Peru) holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Washington with a focus on ethnomusicology. Her areas of expertise include the Afro-Latine communities in Latin America, the Spanish Caribbean, their diasporas, and their performance traditions as trans-border technologies of resilience and community building. As a community artist and activist Rojas-Stewart devoted the last 15 years to extensive community-based organizing, research, and artistic work as a pioneer performer and educator of Afro-Peruvian culture and of the Afro-Latine arts movement in the Pacific Northwest. She is the founder of DE CAJóN Project and Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MÁS), two grassroots arts organizations dedicated to educating about the history and cultural resilience of people of African descent in Peru and Latin America respectively. Rojas-Stewart is recipient of the Tumi USA award, a recognition granted by the Peruvian diasporic community in the U.S. for "having excelled in her career, community service, and for her contributions to the betterment of society."