Nadia Ellis

Nadia Ellis is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, affiliated with the Department of African American Studies. Her research focuses on African diasporic, Caribbean, and postcolonial literatures and cultures, exploring intersections of queer theory, diasporic aesthetics, and migrancy. She holds a PhD in English from Princeton University, an MPhil from Oxford University, and a BA from the University of the West Indies (Mona).

Her work has been supported by prestigious fellowships including the AAUW, SSRC, Hellman Faculty Fellows Fund, and residencies at Berkeley’s Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Institute for International Studies. Key research topics include sexuality and archives in postwar London, electronic musics in political disasters, and performance cultures in Jamaica.

Ellis teaches courses on postcolonial literature, black diasporic culture, and queer theory. Her book Territories of the Soul: Queered Belonging in the Black Diaspora (2015) examines structures of belonging through a queer lens. Office hours are held Tuesdays at Wheeler Hall, room 452.