Position Title
Alumni - D.E. in African Diaspora Studies
PhD in French and Francophone Studies
Dr. Rashana Vikara Lydner is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She holds a PhD and master's degree in French and Francophone Studies with a designated emphasis in African Diaspora Studies from the University of California, Davis, and a Bachelor’s in French and Spanish with a minor in Psychology from The State University of New York Brockport. As an interdisciplinary scholar, her work bridges the fields of African Diaspora studies, Caribbean studies, Cultural studies, and Creolistics. She focuses on a transnational approach to the study of Black popular culture in the francophone and the anglophone Caribbean at the intersections of language, identity, and power.
Her recent publications include: "Decolonizing Creolistics Through Popular Culture: The Case of Guyanais Dancehall" in A. C. Hudley, C. Mallinson, and M. Bucholtz's Oxford University Press's Decolonizing Linguistics, “S’habiller Sexy en Body String: The French Guianese ad gyal and the image of French Caribbean Women” in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, “‘Mwen Enmé’W’ [I Love You]: Black Queer Women’s Social Positioning in the French Caribbean” in Gender & Language. She is currently completing her first monograph, Dancehall ka joué: Gender and Sexual Politics at Play in French Guiana, under contract with Louisiana State University Press as part of the Noir(e): Race and Belonging in the Afro-French World book series.