Meet Dr. Daisy E. Guzman Nunez, Assistant Professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies

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The new names and faces in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts this fall aren’t just those belonging to our students. We are proud to welcome ten new faculty members across seven different departments of the college, as well as five new folks in the UMass Amherst Writing Program. 
Over the course of the semester, we’re introducing you to these faculty members and to the work they do.

“Eventually, we will all be elders,” writes Dr. Daisy E. Guzman Nunez, Assistant Professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. “What lessons will you teach from your experience?”
The research and teaching interests of Guzman Nunez revolve around questions of cultural histories and narratives. Per her biography, she is a “transdisciplinary Black Studies Scholar, her teaching and research interests are on Hemispheric Blackness, Black Feminist Ethnographies and Oral histories, and Black Indigenous Feminisms.” She has worked in New York City, Virginia, and Texas, and her research as a Garifuna scholar has taken her from her home neighborhood of the South Bronx to Honduras and Belize. 
Here are her answers to our questions about herself, her work, and her passions.

Question:  What is your academic background? 
Guzman Nunez: I have a B.S. in Spanish/Psychology from Allegheny College, an M.A. in Spanish Literature and Culture, University of Texas-Austin, and a Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas-Austin.

Question:  What is your teaching experience? 
Guzman Nunez: I taught Spanish at the University of Texas. At the University of Virginia, I was part of the Black and Indigenous Feminist Futures Institute. I was also a guest lecturer at New York University.

Question: Have you worked in other professions that have shaped your approach to teaching and learning? 
Guzman Nunez: I was a program manager at Beginning with Children Foundation in Brooklyn. I also worked with Americorps at Youth Action Youthbuild in Harlem.

Question: What are you passionate about when it comes to this work? 
Guzman Nunez: I am passionate about listening to stories of Black elders and sharing them with the next generation, and teaching the next generation to shape their own stories. Eventually, we will all be elders. What lessons will you teach from your experience? 

Question: Have you published, exhibited, or conducted research? Please share a bit about it, and feel free to include any relevant links. 
Guzman Nunez: I conduct research in Livingston, Guatemala, in connection with Garifuna settlements in New York, Honduras, and Belize. Eventually, I will branch out across Central America and the United States. My recent publication is with the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) . (Extracting Blackness: Garinagu Fight for Sovereignty in LaBuga 
Garifuna women in Guatemala lead initiatives for cultural recovery, ancestral memory, and reparations, paving the way for the next generation.)

Question: What are you most looking forward to at UMass? 
Guzman Nunez: I am looking forward to building a solid community both on and off campus, and seeing how I can expand my hobbies of dancing, cooking, and working out at the gym.