Tatiana M.F. Cruz
Assistant Professor and Interdisciplinary Program Director of Africana Studies
Dr. Tatiana M.F. Cruz is a historian who specializes in critical race, ethnic, diaspora, and gender studies and is a leader in the field of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. She joined the Simmons faculty in 2021.
Dr. Cruz is also the founding co-director of the North Star Collective, a regional consortium of institutions out of the New England Board of Higher Education committed to racial equity and reparative justice in higher education, particularly focused on restoring, nourishing, and uplifting faculty of color.
Education
- PhD, History, from University of Michigan
- Graduate Certificate, African American and Diasporic Studies, from University of Michigan
- MA, History, from University of Michigan
- BA, History & American Studies, from Williams College
Research/Creative Activities
Dr. Cruz's scholarship reflects the intersections of African American, Latinx, urban, and social movement histories, oral history, as well as critical race, ethnic, and diaspora studies and women's and gender studies. Her research centers on African American and Latinx social movements in the urban north. Her work has been published in the Journal of Urban History and the New England Quarterly. Her work has been supported by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Boston College’s African and African Diaspora Studies Program, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others.