Zaira Simone-Thompson
Assistant Professor of African American Studies
BA The New SchoolMA New York University
PHD CUNY The Graduate Center
Zaira Simone-Thompson
Zaira Simone-Thompson is an assistant professor in the African American Studies department. As a geographer, her work and teaching centers on contemporary experiences and representations of slavery, colonialism and uneven development in the Caribbean. Her past work examined the symbolic and material forces of reparative claims in Barbados—a small but politically large landscape. Her current book project explores the multiplicity of Afro-Caribbean and Indo-Caribbean visions of recovery, wholeness, and justice relating to the geographic realities of chattel slavery, indentureship and colonialism.
Zaira Simone-Thompson is also the co-coordinator of the Caribbean Studies Minor here at Wesleyan University.
Zaira embraces teaching as a form of active engagement and encourages students to approach the course material as a political “toolbox” and more importantly to show up as their most authentic selves.
Academic Affiliations
Office Hours
Mondays 3:00-6:00 p.m.
Courses
Fall 2023
AFAM 101 - 01
Intro to Africana Studies
AFAM 268 - 01
Caribbean Geographies
Spring 2024
AFAM 213 - 01
Abolition Geographies
AFAM 216 - 01
A Small Place