Joseph Cáceres

Joseph Cáceres is a first-generation queer NuyoRican writer and Lost & Found Archival Research Fellow at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, where he pursues an English PhD. His work interrogates intersections of language, race, (homo)sexuality, and capitalism through the lens of queer resistance by African and Caribbean diaspora communities against heteronormative white supremacy.

Educational background:

• PhD Candidate in English, CUNY Graduate Center
• Alumnus, Yale Writers’ Workshop

Research focuses on rhetorical strategies employed by queer people of color to dismantle Protestant-promoted systems of oppression, spanning Queer Studies, Critical Race Theory, and archival poetics. His methodology centers community survival narratives from the HIV/AIDS crisis and welfare reform eras.

Scientific Awards:

• Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Grant for Fiction
• LAMBDA Literary Writers Residency for Emerging LGBTQ Voices
• Three Lost & Found Archival Research Grants
• CUNY’s Archival Research in African American & African Diaspora Studies Award
• Center for Place, Culture and Politics Dissertation Award
• Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Doctoral Fellowship

Grant-funded projects include co-editing Memorias de Miguel: The Hard Work of Love (2022) with Nuyorican Poets Cafe founder Lois Elaine Griffith, documenting Miguel Algarín’s legacy. Current work involves curating unpublished archives of the Cafe’s queer founders through CUNY’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe Founders Archive Project.

Collaborates with the Working Groups Nuyorican Artists in the Cafe collective, leading archival showcases and book launches exploring Bronx-based literary resistance. Upcoming events include the 2025 Lost & Found Fellows Showcase and Lois Elaine Griffith’s archival conversation.