We're an Example of Trajectories and Victories: Hip Hop, Education and Literacies of Reexistence

Dr. Ana Lúcia Silva Souza is an activist, an educator, a reader of the world. She has a degree in political and social sciences, a master's degree in social sciences, a doctorate and a postdoctoral degree in applied linguistics. Dr. Silva Souza is a professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), in the Institute of Letters. She leads the UFBA-based research group RASURAS: Literacies of Reexistence in the Black Diaspora. She is affiliated with the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers - ABPN and on the board of directors of the NGO Ação Educativa. In her research she delves into uses of language, literacy, hip hop culture, youth and affirmative action policies as tools for social change. Dr. Silva Souza has published, taught, and lectured extensively throughout the Americas and the African Continent.

Dr. Tanya L. Saunders is a sociologist interested in the ways in which the African Diaspora throughout the Americas uses the arts as a tool for social change. They have a Master of Public Policy (MPP) with a focus on International Development Policy from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Arbor. They have a Bachelors of Arts in Spanish and Public Policy from St. Mary's College of Maryland, and is currently on the graduate faculty in the School of Education at the University of São Paulo in São Paulo, Brazil. As a 2011-2012 Fulbright scholar in Brazil, Dr. Saunders began work on their current project about Black Queer Artivism in Brazil. They are fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is currently learning Yoruba. Dr. Saunders is the founder and editor-in-chief of Améfrica Press. Their book Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity (University of Texas Press, 2015), has also been translated and published in Portuguese as Modernidade negra: Hip Hop, artivismo e mudança social em Havana (Editus 2021).