Dr. Tatiana M.F. Cruz

Founding Co-Director

North Star Collective

Dr. Cruz is an Assistant Professor and Interdisciplinary Program Director of Africana Studies at Simmons University. Her areas of expertise include critical race/ethnic studies, African American and Latinx history, urban history, 20th century social movements, oral history, and women’s, gender, and feminist studies. She has published in the Journal of Urban History and the New England Quarterly is currently working on several projects including a book manuscript that examines African American and Latinx identity, community, and protest in postwar Boston. She received a Ph.D. in History and a Graduate Certificate in African American and Diaspora Studies from the University of Michigan. She can be reached at tcruz [at] nebhe [dot] org.

Dr. Kamille Gentles-Peart

Founding Co-Director

North Star Collective

Dr. Gentles-Peart is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Roger Williams University and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar. Her areas of expertise include Black feminisms, critical race studies, critical communication studies, Caribbean postcolonial studies, and beauty politics. She has authored and edited several books, including Romance With Voluptuousness: Caribbean Women and Thick Bodies in the U.S. (2016). She has published in Women’s Studies Quarterly, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Feminism and Psychology.She received her Ph.D. in Mass Communication and a Graduate Certificate in Gender Studies from the University of Michigan. She can be reached at kgentles-peart [at] nebhe [dot] org.