Ananda Cohen-Aponte

Ananda Cohen-Aponte is an Associate Professor of History of Art at Cornell University, affiliated with the Archaeology Program, Latina/o Studies Program, and the College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center and a B.A. from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor. Her research focuses on the visual culture of pre-Hispanic and colonial Latin America, particularly the Andes, examining racial formation, cross-cultural exchange, and legacies of colonialism in contemporary Latinx art.

Her current book project, Insurgent Imaginaries: The Art of Rebellion in the Colonial Andes, analyzes visual culture’s role in Indigenous and Afrodescendant resistance against Spanish colonialism. She has published extensively in journals like Colonial Latin American Review, The Americas, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, and Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, with her work appearing in edited volumes from Brill, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and Haynanka Ediciones.

Notable awards include the Association for Latin American Art (ALAA) Article Prize (2017) for 'Decolonizing the Global Renaissance,' an Honorable Mention for the Franklin Pease G.Y. Memorial Prize (2013–2014), and the 2019 Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Academic Advising Award. She co-authored the influential 'A Call to Action' (2019) in Art Journal and co-edited the Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture dossier on diversity in art history.

A cross-disciplinary researcher, she collaborates with Dr. Ella Maria Diaz, Dr. Jolene Rickard, and artist Sandy Rodriguez on projects like From Invasive Others Toward Embracing Each Other, exploring hemispheric art-ecology-migration intersections. Funded by Global Cornell and the Mellon Foundation's Just Futures Initiative, this project creates immersive learning environments for BIPOC student recruitment and place-based knowledge. She served a nine-year term as President of the Association for Latin American Art, shaping disciplinary diversity initiatives.