John Mundell

Dr. John Mundell is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. His research examines race, gender, and sexuality through cultural productions across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Lusophone Africa. Mundell is currently developing his dissertation into a monograph titled Longing for a Racial Democracy: Interracial Intimacies and Popular Culture in Brazil, which critically analyzes how Brazil's racial democracy myth evolves through literature, film, music, and digital media.

His scholarship explores intersections of Black studies with Latin American/Caribbean studies through frameworks including Black Queer Studies and Critical Whiteness. Mundell co-directs the Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean (BLAC) working group, supporting junior scholars. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender & Sexuality, and previously earned a master's in Ethnic and African Studies from Universidade Federal da Bahia.