Daniela Gomes da Silva

Daniela Gomes da Silva is an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies at San Diego State University, specializing in African Diaspora movements and social activism. Her academic journey includes a Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies with a Women and Gender Studies certification from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in Cultural Studies with a Media, Information, and Culture certification from Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and a B.A. in Journalism from Universidade Metodista de Sao Paulo.

• Ph.D., African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin
• M.A., Cultural Studies, Universidade de Sao Paulo
• B.A., Journalism, Universidade Metodista de Sao Paulo

Dr. Gomes's research bridges Afro-Brazilian and global African Diaspora communities through hip-hop culture, focusing on racial resistance and empowerment. Her work explores how hip-hop serves as a tool for combating alienation and systemic inequities in peripheral regions of Sao Paulo. She has lectured extensively on race dynamics in Brazil and internationally, and her TEDx talk "O poder do hip-hop" (2016) highlights her activist framework.

Her publications, including chapters in In This Together: Blackness, Indigeneity, and Hip-Hop and Race and the Politics of Knowledge Production, analyze hip-hop's role in transnational solidarity and racial discourse. Dr. Gomes has also contributed to media outlets like MSNBC and AlJazeera English, discussing Afro-Diasporic challenges and Brazil's socio-political landscape under leaders like Bolsonaro.