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Alexandra Isfahani-Hammond

(she/her)
Associate Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, University of California, San Diego

I work at the intersection of critical animal studies, decolonial studies and comparative race and slavery studies. Above all, I am interested in troubling the human/ animal divide, anthropocentrism and the entanglement of animalization with racialization. My publications include the book chapters, "Dogs without Masters: Astray with Akbar and in André Alexis' Fifteen Dogs" (2022), "A Pale Shade of Violet: Animals and Race in Machado de Assis" (2022), “Haunting Pigs, Swimming Jaguars: Mourning, Animals and Ayahuasca” 
(2020) and "Slave Barracks Aristocrats: Islam and the Orient in the Work of Gilberto Freyre" (2014); the articles, "Of She-Wolves and Mad Cows: Animality, Anthropophagy and the State of Exception in Cláudio Assis's Amarelo Manga" (2011) and “Akbar Stole My Heart: Coming Out as an Animalist” (2013); the monograph, White Negritude: Race, Writing and Brazilian Cultural Identity (2008); and the edited volume, The Masters and the Slaves: Plantation Relations and Mestizaje in American Imaginaries (2005). In addition to my scholarly publications, I have written for media including The Advocate, The Conversation, CounterPunch, Ms. Magazine, Persianesque, the Folha de S. Paulo and Truthout.

Experience

  • 2016–present
    Associate professor emerita, U.C. San Diego

Education

  • 2000 
    U.C. Berkeley, PhD / Comparative Literature

Publications

  • 2008
    White Negritude: Race, Writing and Brazilian Cultural Identity,
  • 2005
    The Masters and the Slaves: Plantation Relations and Mestizaje in American Imaginaries,

Grants and Contracts

  • 2003
    J William Fulbright Professor
    Role:
    Funding Source:
    J William Fulbright Foundation

Professional Memberships

  • Foubding member, North American Association of Critical Animal Studies

Honours

William J. Fulbright Fellow, Mellon Fellow