Danielle Roper

Danielle Roper is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in Latin American Literature and Associate Faculty Member in Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. She serves as HLBS Undergraduate Adviser and directs the 'Conversations in Hemispheric Performance' series. Her research focuses on racial and queer performance, feminist activism, and visual culture in the Americas.

Dr. Roper holds a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. Her first monograph, *Hemispheric Blackface* (Duke University Press, 2025), examines blackface performance across Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, and Miami. She curates the visual exhibit *Visualizing/Performing Blackness in the Afterlives of Slavery: A Caribbean Archive* and is completing a second book on Caribbean performance and visual art.

Her teaching spans U.S imperialism, theatre, constructs of afro-latinidad, and feminist theory. Affiliations include the Center for Latin American Studies, Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies.

• Awards: Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (2006)
• Key Projects: Co-organizer of the Slavery and Visual Culture working group
• Public Engagement: Media commentator on Latin American affairs