Professor Captain teaches courses related to Latin America and International Affairs at George Washington University. She is an expert on the African Diaspora, and South-South relations, particularly between Latin America and Africa. As a cultural and intellectual historian, Professor Captain considers the ways in which the past informs the present. This includes the whole of Latin American letters, and with specific emphasis on the thought processes of the most gifted writers and thinkers of Afro-Latin America. Her latest project examines African surnames in the Americas, and is a multi-year, collaborative effort with colleagues in Brazil and Colombia. The project now forms part of the Black Digital Public Humanities Project: https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/mappingbdph/. Professor Captain’s book “Of Progenitors and Whom They Beget: “African” Surnamed People in the United States,” is under consideration. Also being reviewed is her article “Quintessentially American and Non-White: Diaspora Agency in the First Generations of the Cuffe Family.” She publishes, interviews, and lectures widely on the subjects of South-South relations, and the African Diaspora. Professor Captain received her Ph. D. from Stanford University and holds a Masters of International Policy and Practice (M.I.P.P.) at the university where she teaches.

Publications

(Selected) 

• "International Organization (IO) Theory and Online Afro-Latin America" in Afro-Digital Connections: Afro-Latino and Afro-Descendant Cultural Production in the Digital Age. 2021. Eduard Arriaga and Andrés Villar, eds.; University of Florida Press: 96-118
• “Side Gigs of the Literati:  Humanitarianism at Its Best”. Revista Internacional de Cooperación y Desarrollo. No. 7.1. enero-junio 2020:  62-8. DOI:10.21500/23825014.4731
• “Aída Cartagena-Portalatín: ¿intelectual entre iguales?” Afro-Hispanic Review (Spring 2015) Vol 34.1:  47-58 

Office Hours

Tuesdays: 3:45-5:15

Thursdays: 12:45-2:00

Distinctions

Some Awards and Honors

• The Yvonne Captain Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education for outstanding contributions to the field of international education (phibetadelta.org) 
• Keynote Addresses at colloquia related to the celebration of 100 years since the birth of Manuel Zapata Olivella
   

Classes Taught

SPAN 3420: "The Essayistic Tradition in Latin America"

SPAN 3430: "Afro-Latin America in the Diaspora"

SPAN 3440: “Caribbean Literature and Culture”

SPAN 3520: "Latin American Colonial Literature"

SPAN 4600: “Myth and Mythmaking in Latin America”

SPAN 4700: "Film as Text in Latin America"

SPAN 4910W : "Proseminar"