Rachel Grace Newman

Rachel Grace Newman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, affiliated with the Arts & Sciences division. Her research focuses on art history, visual culture, and Black geographies with a specialization in colonial Caribbean contexts and contemporary Afro-Atlantic diasporic practices. She holds a PhD in Art History from Stanford University (2016), an MA from Stanford (2011), and a dual BA in History and Art History from Rutgers University (2008).

Her work bridges academic scholarship with curatorial practice, including the 2016 exhibition *Blood in the Sugar Bowl* at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center. She co-leads the art collective In Rapture, exploring ancestral connections to geographic sites through photography. Key research areas include Black feminist studies, Caribbean history, and the intersection of slavery/abolition with visual representation.

Newman’s forthcoming book *Assurance of Infinity: A Jamaican Remembrance* examines 19th-century Jamaica through artist William Berryman’s work, addressing themes of diaspora, ancestral power, and colonial violence. She teaches courses on Caribbean art, colonial visual systems, and Black spiritualities.