Renée Alexander Craft

Renée Alexander Craft is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a joint appointment in the Department of Communication and Curriculum in Global Studies. As a performance studies-trained Black feminist scholar, her work bridges ethnographic research, digital humanities, and creative writing.

• B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and Communication Studies from UNC Chapel Hill
• Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University

Her research interrogates Blackness in hemispheric American contexts, focusing on how African-descended communities use performance to navigate structural domination. Key themes include:

• Historical and contemporary Congo traditions in Portobelo, Panama
• Intersectional analysis of race, gender, and class
• Digital archiving as preservation practice

Recent publications and projects reveal interdisciplinary engagement with:

• Black Atlantic cultural studies
• Digital humanities methodology
• Afro-Latinx performance traditions

Notable awards include:

• 2022 - Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
• 2017 - Errol Hill Award for outstanding African American theatre scholarship
• 2016 - Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship for Digital Portobelo expansion

Her creative work includes the novel She Looks Like Us, exploring Black diaspora family narratives across the U.S. South and Panama.