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The Evolution of Blackness in Panama

My research examines how Blackness is understood, experienced, and expressed in contemporary Panama. While Panama is home to diverse Afro-descendant populations with distinct histories, cultures, and relationships to the nation, relatively little scholarship has explored how these communities navigate changing ideas about race, identity, and belonging in the twenty-first century.

Drawing on ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and visual methods, I explore the social, cultural, and political forces that shape Afro-Panamanian life today. In particular, I examine how cultural movements, community organizations, activists, artists, and everyday people sustain, transform, and contest meanings of Blackness in a society historically influenced by ideologies of mestizaje and racial democracy.

Fieldwork for this project is being conducted across Panama City, Colón, and Bocas del Toro, regions that reflect the country’s diverse Afro-descendant histories and experiences. Through interviews, community engagement, and audiovisual documentation, this research seeks to better understand how Afro-Panamanians negotiate questions of identity, heritage, recognition, and community in contemporary Panama.

This project contributes to broader conversations on race, ethnicity, nationhood, and identity formation in Latin America while highlighting the voices, experiences, and cultural practices of Afro-Panamanian communities.