Kaneesha Parsard

Kaneesha Parsard is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago's Department of English, specializing in Caribbean and African American studies. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University (2017) and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (2011), teaching at UChicago since 2018.

• Education: Ph.D., Yale University (2017); B.A., University of Pennsylvania (2011)

Her scholarship examines the legacies of slavery and emancipation in the Americas, with a focus on gendered and sexualized structures of race, labor, and capital. Current research explores informal economies, Caribbean visual cultures, archives, and transnational feminisms.

Parsard's recent publications analyze counter-archival figures in post-emancipation Caribbean societies, including indentured laborers, barrack-yard economies, and diasporic inheritance patterns. Her work connects economic history with literary and visual representations of marginalized communities.

• Teaching: Courses on Caribbean literature (e.g., 'New Caribbean Writing'), family sagas in African diasporic women's writing ('Family Sagas: Women's Writing from Africa and the African Diaspora')