Afro-Cuban Intellectuals and Artistic Creation
April 28, 2016
Professor William Luis is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Spanish at Vanderbilt University. He has held teaching positions at Dartmouth College, Yale University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Binghamton University. Professor Luis was awarded a 2012-2013 Guggenheim Fellowship for his project titled “The Life and Works of the Cuban Slave Poet Juan Francisco Manzano.” Professor Luis has published thirteen books and more than one hundred scholarly articles. His authored books include Literary Bondage: Slavery in Cuban Narrative (1990), Dance Between Two Cultures: Latino Caribbean Literature Written in the United States (1997), Culture and Customs of Cuba (2001), Lunes de Revolución: Literatura y cultura en los primeros años de la Revolución Cubana (2003), Juan Francisco Manzano: Autobiografía del esclavo poeta y otros escritos (2007), and Las vanguardias del Caribe: Cuba, Puerto Rico y la República Dominicana (2010). Professor Luis is the editor of the Afro-Hispanic Review.
Born and raised in New York City, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York in Binghamton. Subsequently, her earned two Master of Arts degrees: the first, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and the second, from Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is widely regarded as a leading authority on Latin American, Caribbean, Afro-Hispanic, and Latino U.S. literatures.