Alyssa A. L. James is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research explores colonial and commodity histories and their afterlives in the French Caribbean. Her current book project, Martinique in the Time of Coffee: Heritage, Revival, and the Recursive Caribbean, examines how heritage becomes both a promise and a problem in efforts to realize political and economic futures through agricultural revival. She is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the USC Society of Fellows in the Humanities.

 

A Jamaican Canadian scholar and writer from Toronto, Dr. James earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University. She also holds an M.A. in Social Anthropology from York University and an Honours B.Sc. with Distinction in Psychology and Equity Studies from the University of Toronto. Her research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She is the 2023 recipient of the American Anthropological Association’s Setha M. Low Engaged Anthropology Award for her work on the Black feminist anthropology podcast Zora’s Daughters.

 

Outside of academia, she enjoys dancing, traveling, and spending time with her beloved rescue dog, Frankie. Learn more on her website, aaljames.com.