Abigail Vázquez Rosario

Abby is a Ph.D. student in Communication additionally earning two graduate certificates, one in Digital Humanities and another in Caribbean/Latinx Studies. She is a researcher at the Black Communication and Technology Lab (BCaT) and the Diaspora Solidarities Lab Taller Entre Aguas Macrolab working on the Criadas Project. Her research interests are in Puerto Rican Studies, Caribbean/Latinx Studies, Black Digital Humanities, Media Studies and Intercultural Communication. Her current project uses Black Feminist Praxis and Black Digital Studies to explore how Bomba and Plena, two Afro-Puerto Rican genres, function as a form of Black Technological Creativity and resistance, through the form of protest, political discourse in non-political spaces, and Black Joy. Through a study of resistance practices, she aims to show how Bomba and Plena are used to preserve African Oral Traditions that have survived the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and centuries of racism and how social media allows for Digital Grioting.