Nicosia Shakes

Nicosia Shakes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies at the University of California Merced. Her research focuses on African Diasporic political activism, gender, race, and theatre/performance studies. She holds a PhD in Africana Studies from Brown University (2017), along with degrees from the University of the West Indies and UCLA's Screenwriting Program.

Her book Women’s Activist Theatre in Jamaica and South Africa: Gender, Race, and Performance Space (2023, University of Illinois Press) won the National Women’s Studies Association First Book Prize in 2017. The work analyzes how African-descended women’s theatre projects in Jamaica and South Africa address racial, gender, and economic justice through performance.

Dr. Shakes’ creative work includes the play Afiba and Her Daughters (2016), part of her Afiba Cycle series exploring Jamaican storytelling traditions. She previously taught at The College of Wooster and has been affiliated with Rites and Reason Theatre.

Awards: National Women’s Studies Association First Book Prize (2017).

No grants or advising details are explicitly provided in the text.