Cheryl R. Rodriguez is Professor of Africana Studies and Anthropology in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida. Her research interests include race, gender, class and housing policy; histories of local communities; Black womens community activism; and Afro-Cuban womens histories. Dr. Rodriguez is currently Principal Investigator of an NSF-funded project on racial violence in Florida. Her publications include two edited volumes, Transatlantic Feminisms: Women and Gender Studies in Africa and the Diaspora, co-edited with Dzodzi Tsikata and Akosua Ampofo and The Power and Freedom of Black Feminist and Womanist Pedagogy co-edited with Gary Lemons. At the 2023 meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Professor Rodriguez was awarded the Ira Harrison Legacy Award by the Association of Black Anthropologists.