This fall semester Indiana University’s Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology welcomed award-winning folklorist, Dr. Solimar Otero, to its permanent faculty. Dr. Otero is well known for her research in gender, sexuality, spirituality, and Yoruban religious practices throughout the Afro-Caribbean. Having earned her Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, she has since established herself as one of the foremost scholars in Latinx and African Diaspora Studies.

She is the author of Afro-Cuban Diasporas in the Atlantic World (University of Rochester Press, 2013) and co-editor of Yemoja: Gender, Sexuality, and Creativity in Latina/o and Afro-Atlantic Diasporas (SUNY Press 2013), and her work has been featured in journals such as The Journal of American Folklore, Western Folklore, Africa Today, and The American Journal of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Solimar Otero joined a world-renowned faculty of folklorists and ethnomusicologists at IU. “It’s like coming home, since all of my mentors have been trained at IU,” Otero said. “I can’t wait to share my love for Latinx and African Diaspora folklore. I really look forward to joining my future colleagues and students in showing the world the compelling nature of the study of everyday life.”