Dr. Joan Flores Villalobos

Biography

Joan Flores-Villalobos is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Southern California. She received her Ph.D. in African Diaspora History from New York University in 2018. Prior to joining USC, Dr. Flores-Villalobos served as an Assistant Professor at Ohio State University. Her academic work focuses on the histories of gender, race, and diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is the author of the book 'The Silver Women: How Black Women’s Labor Made the Panama Canal,' published by Penn Press, which explores the crucial role of Black women's labor in the construction of the Panama Canal. Dr. Flores-Villalobos has contributed to various academic journals, including 'Historia Crítica' and 'Small Axe: Caribbean Journal of Criticism,' where her studies examine the intersections of labor, race, and gender dynamics in historical contexts. Her research interests position her as a significant scholar in understanding the complexities of diasporic narratives and labor history in the Americas.

Research Interests