Ariana Curtis

Originally from East Longmeadow, MA, I am pursuing my Ph.D. in the Race, Gender, and Social Justice program here at American University.

I received my B.A. from Duke University in May 2002. As a Comparative Area Studies major, I studied the political history of Latin America and North America. With that foundation, my current research project is based in Panama. I am exploring the processes and agents of identity formation in and around the former Canal Zone, with emphasis on the conflation of race, ethnicity, and nationality and creation of national identity. Based on the legacy of American colonialism in Panama, I am focusing on post-1999 Panama and the shifting construction and definition of blackness specifically, in Panama City and Colón.

My general research interests include processes of globalization, race, ethnicity and national identity, and the cleavage between the public and private spheres. I am interested in racial construction and fluidity, how political climates and state policy affect identity, social myth versus lived reality in terms of social justice, the role of governmental and public institutions in creating/maintaining/alleviating inequality and discrimination, and the United States' role in shaping this region, particularly through neoliberalism and the legacy of the Cold War.