Biography
Monica Rojas-Stewart (Lima, Peru) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at the University of Washington. Her research areas include Afro-Peruvian culture, Afro-Latine communities in Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean, their diasporas, and their performance traditions as transborder technologies of resilience and community building. As a community artist and activist, Rojas-Stewart devoted over 15 years to extensive community-based organizing, research, and artistic work as a pioneering performer and educator of Afro-Peruvian culture and of the Afro-Latine arts movement in the Pacific Northwest. She is the founder of the DE CAJóN Project and Movimiento Afrolatino Seattle (MÁS), two grassroots arts organizations dedicated to educating others about the history and cultural resilience of people of African descent in Peru and Latin America, respectively. Rojas-Stewart is the 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."