Gina Athena Ulysse

Gina Athena Ulysse
Ulysse in 2020
Born1966 (age 59–60)
Pétion-Ville, Haiti
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Michigan (MA, PhD)
Upsala College (BA)
Academic work
DisciplineAnthropology, Feminist Studies, Performance Art
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC); Wesleyan University
Notable works
Because When God Is Too Busy, A Call to Rasanblaj
Websiteginaathenaulysse.com

Gina Athena Ulysse (born 1966) is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar and writer whose body of work focuses on the visceral in the structural. Committed to ethnography, she uses a rasanblaj approach (gathering of ideas, things, people, and spirits) to her research questions, which are rooted in traditions of Black feminism to engage geopolitics, historical representations, aesthetics, and the spiritual in the dailiness of Black diasporic conditions. Her art and writing practice entail ongoing crossings and dialogues between the arts, humanities, and social sciences. She was a Bogliasco fellow in 2024[1] and a MacDowell fellow in 2025.

Early life and education

Ulysse was born in Petion-Ville, Haiti and attended Anne-Marie Javouhey, an order of the Sisters of St. Joseph de Cluny. In 1978, she immigrated to the United States with her family during the Jean-Claude “Baby doc” Duvalier dictatorship. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology and English from Upsala College. She earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. "Gina Athena Ulysse". Retrieved March 5, 2025.

Career

Currently, she is Professor of Humanities at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the Founding Director of the Rasanblaj Praxis Project Lab.

She is the first artist-in-residence of the American Ethnological Association. She is the editor of the Rasanblaj section of Anthropology Now Review[2] published by Taylor and Francis. Her articles, essays, poetry, and visual art have been featured in Feminist Studies, Journal of Haitian Studies,[3] Kerb: Journal of Landscape Architecture,[4] Transition, and Third Text to name a few. Ulysse was an invited artist to the Biennale of Sydney (2020) and Biennale of Dakar (2024).[5]

Honors and awards

  • MacDowell Residency Fellow (2024)
  • Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship (2023)
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, UCSC (2021-2022)
  • Connecticut Book Award for Poetry (2018)
  • AAA Anthropology in Media Award (2018)
  • Haitian Studies Association Excellence in Scholarship Award (2015)
  • Wesleyan University Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2015)

Selected publications

Books

Editor

Journals and art catalogs

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Announcing The Bogliasco Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 Fellowship Awards" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "About Us – Anthropology Now". Retrieved May 23, 2026.
  3. ↑ Ulysse, Gina Athena (2006). "Papa, Patriarchy, and Power: Snapshots of a Good Haitian Girl, Feminism, & Dyasporic Dreams". Journal of Haitian Studies. 12 (1): 24–47. ISSN 1090-3488.
  4. ↑ "Kerb Journal". kerb-journal.com. January 1, 2020. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Gina Athena Ulysse: Redwoods Rasanblaj, Origins and Disentanglements". Institute of the Arts and Sciences. June 27, 2025. Retrieved May 23, 2026.
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