Natassja B. Gunasena holds a Ph.D in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.  Her research emphasizes the transnational in African and Asian diasporic formations of gender and sexuality. At Trinity, she teaches courses on war and empire, histories of the global south, and queer and feminist perspectives on diaspora and immigration. Her pedagogy highlights student-centric learning, interdisciplinarity, and the use of art, film, and narrative in contesting the boundaries of traditional archives. She is currently at work on her manuscript, tentatively titled, Queer Readings of Black Orientalism.

Publications:

• Gunasena, Natassja B. “‘Something Like Kali and Durga Must've Rocked’: Sri Lankan Femininity and the Poetics of Diaspora.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 47.1 (2019): 48-64.

Presentations:

• “Nagini’s Dance: Cobra Affects, Crossplay and Women of Color Subcultures,” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, November (2019).
• “Revisioning Orisha Religions, Death and the Neo-Liberal Academy,” 44^th Annual Caribbean  Studies Association Conference, Santa Marta, Colombia (2019).
• “A Handful of Mustard Seeds: Theorizing at the Intersection of Death, Violence and Academia,” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Atlanta, GA, November (2018).