Dr. Nikoli Attai is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies, focusing on Black queer and feminist studies. He received his PhD in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, a Master of Philosophy in Cultural Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication from the University of the West Indies. His first book titled Defiant Bodies: Making Queer Community in the Anglophone Caribbean, published by Rutgers University Press, explores queer politics in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Toronto. Utilizing transnational feminist, Black queer studies, Queer Caribbean studies, and transgender studies frameworks, He examines how working-class queer and trans people are co-opting, re-imagining and re-articulating space in these Caribbean sites that are often hostile for persons who fail to adhere to dominant expectations of legible gender and sexuality. He also considers how experiences in these sites allow us to better understand queer life in the Caribbean beyond narratives of mortality, disease, and a need to flee violence.

Alongside his colleague Dr. Caridad Souza, he co-manages the CSU Collab Lab, a collaborative research hub that investigates the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality inform a sense of belonging in varied political, cultural, social, economic, and historical contexts in the US and beyond. Here he works closely with students by providing a space to nurture and inspire innovative and exciting research. One of the lab’s main projects is the Undergraduate Academy of Feminist Scholars (UGAFS), which provides training in transnational feminist research and students are now embarking on a study to document the experiences of trans and gender diverse students at the university.