Tavia Nyong’o

Tavia Nyong'o serves as the William Lampson Professor at Yale University with cross-disciplinary appointments across American Studies, Black Studies, Performance Studies, and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. His scholarly practice interrogates the intersections of race, sexuality, and aesthetics through Black queer performance and speculative frameworks.

Central to Nyong'o's research is the exploration of affective historiography and the re-examination of 'race' within performance and aesthetics. His work critically engages with racial and sexual dissidence in art, the performative dimensions of museum practice, and Black speculative thought at the precipice of planetary crisis. He actively reframes theoretical binaries between afropessimism and afrofuturism to illuminate Black futurity.

His publication trajectory reveals a sustained investigation into Black cultural production, evolving from historical analyses of racial memory in 'The Amalgamation Waltz' (2009) to the queer dramaturgy of Black life in 'Afro-Fabulations' (2018), and culminating in the apocalyptic speculations of 'Black Apocalypse' (2025). These works collectively traverse cultural history, contemporary art criticism, and critical race/gender theory.

His scientific recognition includes:

• Guggenheim Fellow (2024)
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship
• American Society for Theatre Research Fellowship
• Ford Foundation Fellowship
• Jacob K. Javits Fellowship
• British Marshall Foundation Fellowship

Nyong'o co-founded the Practicing Refusal Collective and contributes to the Sojourner Project—a transnational Black Studies academy addressing anti-Black violence and Black futurity. As curator at Park Avenue Armory and editor-at-large of 'Social Text', he bridges academic scholarship with public intellectual engagement through editorial leadership of 'Sexual Cultures' book series and multiple journal editorial boards.