Yarimar Bonilla

Welcome to the publication, “Representations.” This is a project designed to bring the perspectives of a wider variety of groups to the forefront of the anthropology classroom. In recognition of often-overlooked Women’s History, we are covering the accomplishments of female anthropologists. Learn more about our project; read on for the amazing accomplishments of Yarimar Bonilla.

Yarimar Bonilla is a Puerto Rican columnist, author, political anthropologist, and professor of anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Born on February 23, 1975 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, her accomplishments span beyond anthropology, as she seeks to uncover how to study anthropology through a decolonized lens. She is a member of the Department of Africana, Carribean, Puerto Rican and Latinx Studies at Hunter College, and was in the PhD Program of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Bonilla’s first book, Non-Sovereign Futures: French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment, explores the extent to which the contemporary activists in Guadeloupe fight against the limits of the previously French-colonized sovereignty. Challenging contemporary notions of freedom, sovereignty, nationalism, and revolution, the book itself illuminates for her readers how to decolonize how we think of sovereignty itself. Her newest book…