Keisha S. Allan
Asst Professor
Weissman School of Arts and Sciences
Department: Black and Latino Studies
Areas of expertise:
Email Address: keisha.allan@baruch.cuny.edu
> View CV- Biography
- Teaching
- Research and Creative Activity
- Grants
- Honors and Awards
- Service
Dr. Keisha Allan is an assistant professor in the Department of Black & Latinx Studies at Baruch College. Her research focuses on twentieth-century Caribbean literature. Within this field, she examines Caribbean literature by women writers who critique social and political inequities in their societies. She examines how selected female authors from the Caribbean create fictional worlds that have the effect of subverting patriarchal perspectives and paradigms in their postcolonial societies. She interrogates society and artistic responsibility, with women presented as creatively engaged in revolutionary activities aimed at reshaping ideas and perspectives in the national imaginary. She has published sections of her research in peer-reviewed journals such as The Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy and Women in French Studies. She has also contributed peer-reviewed book chapters to volumes published by Lexington Books and Routledge. Her current research project examines how Caribbean women writers propose alternative conceptions of marronage by foregrounding the freedom making tactics of women in post-colonial societies shaped variously by French, Spanish and British colonialism.
As an advocate for community building, Dr. Allan has worked with community organizations founded by Anglophone Caribbean people who work with Caribbean and Central American students to expand knowledge by considering how issues of diversity and inclusion are discussed in the Washington Metropolitan Area and in various parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. In coordination with local community organizations, she has created avenues for productive global outreach to Caribbean and Latin American communities.
Education
Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of Maryland United States
M.A., Spanish Literature, University of the West Indies St. Augustine Trinidad and Tobago
| Semester | Course Prefix | Course Number | Course Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2024 | BLS | 3024 | Women of Color |
| Spring 2024 | LACS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Spring 2024 | ENG | 3835 | Black Women Writers |
| Spring 2024 | LTS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Spring 2024 | BLS | 3835 | Black Women Writers |
| Spring 2024 | BLS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Fall 2023 | BLS | 1003 | Evol & Express Racsm |
| Fall 2023 | BLS | 3024 | Women of Color |
| Spring 2023 | LACS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Spring 2023 | LTS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Spring 2023 | BLS | 4902 | Latin America and the Caribbea |
| Spring 2023 | BLS | 3024 | Women of Color |
| Fall 2022 | ENG | 3835 | Black Women Writers |
| Fall 2022 | BLS | 3835 | Black Women Writers |
| Fall 2022 | BLS | 3024 | Women of Color |
Books
Allan, K. Freedom Making Tactics: Reimagining Marronage in Caribbean Women's Fiction. In Progress.
Journal Articles
(2024). Imagining Under Constraints: Writing at the Eye of the Political Storm Under the Duvalier Regime. Women In French Studies, (Special issue 2024). pp. 103-115.
(2023). Epidermalization of Inferiority: A Fanonian Reading of Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s Amour. Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 30, no. 2, 30(2). 95-101.
Book Chapters
(2024). Reimagining Marronage in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber. Science Fantasy: Critical Explorations in literature, cinema and popular culture. (pp. 95-106). Lanham, Maryland. Lexington Books.
(2024). Verbal Marronage as Linguistic Resistance in Midnight Robber. Introduction to Afrofuturism: A Mixtape in Black Literature & Arts and Culture (pp. 241-253). Routledge.
Historical Fiction as Resistance: Transnational Narratives in Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s Amour. Routledge Guide to Using Historical Sources
"Nalo Hopkinson" in "Key Figures in Queer Theory". The Bloomsbury Handbook to Black Queer Writing and Cultural Expression. In Progress.
Presentations
Allan, K. (2025, June 9). Historical Fiction Without Borders: Postnational Critique and Transnational Memory in Amour. Transnational and Postnational Historical Fictions. Online: Historical Fictions Research Network.
Allan, K. Reimagining Marronage in Midnight Robber. Africana Studies Workshop. Harrisonburg, Virginia: James Madison University.
Allan, K. Violent Insurrection in Marie Vieux Chauvet's Amour. Revolutionary Violence. New York: NemLa.
Allan, K. The Female Body as the Medium for Reimagining the Nation. Creating A World Without Violence Against Women and Girls. Seamus Heaney Center
Allan, K. (2025, June 9). "A Celebration of Caribbean Cultures". Caribbean American Heritage Month. University of Maryland Global Campus
Allan, K. (2025, October 9). Matriarchal Justice in Caribbean Women’s Fiction. . Brown and Black Identities and Varieties of Justice in the Americas. Latin American Studies Association, October 2021.. University of Maryland
Allan, K. (2025, June 9). Verbal Marronage in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber. Identity Politics, Industry, Ecology and the Intelligent Economy in Caribbean Societies, Caribbean Studies Association Conference, June 2021.. : CSA.
Allan, K. (2025, February 9). Marronage in Caribbean Women's Fiction . Black Temporalities: Past, Present and Future, 10th Annual AAAD Interdisciplinary Conference. James Madison University
Allan, K. (2025, October 9). “Día de los Muertos in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Comparative Analysis of the Cultural Configurations of the Day of the Dead Celebrations,” . Latin America and the Caribbean Studies Association. University of Maryland
Allan, K. (2025, March 9). Reimagining the Caribbean in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber . Northeast Modern Language Association Conference. Boston
Allan, K. (2025, November 9). Narratives of Resistance: Storytelling and the Black Diaspora. Contemporary Perspectives on Race and Cross-cultural Identity. University of Maryland
Allan, K. (2025, May 9). Writing in the Socio-political Storm Under the Duvalier . Tormenta, Storm: Winds of Change: Latin America and the Caribbean Studies Association. University of Maryland
Allan, K. (2025, September 9). The Layered Now: Meeting Ground of Competing Tempos and Temporalities. Representations of Time across Art, Literature and Film. University of Maryland
Allan, K. (2025, September 9). Signifying Nothing: Existentialism in the Works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernesto Sabato and Albert Camus . University of the West Indies Graduate Dissertation Seminar. St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Other Scholarly Works
Allan, K. (2023). "More than our Pain: Black Women's Narratives of Resistance in Malika Booker's Pepper Seed.". The Fight and The Fiddle. 6(3), 1-8.
| Honor / Award | Organization Sponsor | Date Received | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katherine McKittrick Book Award | University of Maryland | 2021 | |
| Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship | University of Maryland | 2020 |
College
| Committee Name | Position Role | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BLS Department Executive Committee Member | Committee Member | Present | |
| Black and Latino Studies | Department Secretary | Present | |
| Alumni Association | Keynote Speaker | Present | |
| Success Amplified | Panelist | Present | |
| Film Screening Black Mexicans La Negrada | Panelist | Present | |
| Black Studies Colloquium | Committee Chair | Present | |
| Curriculum Committee | Committee Member | Present | |
| Success Amplified | Faculty Mentor | Present | |
| Carnival Film Festival | Moderator | 2/15/2023 |