YARIMAR BONILLA
Political Anthropologist
Both an accomplished scholar and a prominent public intellectual, Yarimar Bonilla is a leading voice on questions of Caribbean and Latinx politics. She is a 2018-2020 Carnegie Fellow for her current research on the political, economic, and social aftermath of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and is currently a Professor at the City University of New York.
Blurring the lines between political and historical anthropology, Yarimar teaches and writes about questions of sovereignty, citizenship, and race across the Americas.
Highlights
Article Forum: The Coloniality of Disaster: Race, empire, and the temporal logics of emergency
For Investors, Puerto Rico Is a Fantasy Blank Slate (The Nation)
How Puerto Ricans fit into an increasingly anti-immigrant U.S (Washington Post)
Unsettling the classics: On symptomatic readings and disciplinary agnosticism
Why would anyone in Puerto Rico want a hurricane? Because someone will get rich. (Washington Post)
Deprovincializing Trump, Decolonizing Diversity, and Unsettling Anthropology
Visualizing Sovereignty: Animated video of Caribbean political history designed by Yarimar Bonilla and Max Hantel
#Ferguson: Digital Protest, Hashtag Ethnography, and the Racial Politics of Social Media
Recent Media
Deadly Earthquake Rocks Puerto Rico, Causing “Infrastructural Aftershocks”
The Leaked Texts at the Heart of Puerto Rico’s Massive Protests (The Nation)
Trump hasn’t treated Puerto Rico well. But that’s a long U.S. tradition. (Washington Post)
When Disaster Capitalism Comes for the University of Puerto Rico (The Nation)
Trump’s false claims about Puerto Rico are insulting. But they reveal a deeper truth. (Washington Post)
Puerto Ricanstruction: Federal Court Cases Determine Human Rights and Creditors’ Rights
Here’s what your U.S. History Textbooks won’t tell you about Puerto Rico (Now This)
Catalogan como “doble trauma” la experiencia de los boricuas tras María
Puerto Rico tras el huracán: los puertorriqueños se van, los “ultraricos” llegan
Six Months After Maria, Residents Resist Efforts to Turn Island into Privatized Bitcoin Playground
6 Months After Maria, Puerto Ricans Face a New Threat—Education Reform (The Nation)
For Investors, Puerto Rico Is a Fantasy Blank Slate (The Nation)
How Puerto Ricans fit into an increasingly anti-immigrant U.S (Washington Post)
How to Help the University of Puerto Rico — and How Not To (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Puerto Rico Debt Forgiveness: A Moral Imperative Or Economic Recklessness?
The psychological toll of natural disasters — and how mainland Puerto Ricans are coping
Vulture Capitalists Circle Above Puerto Rican Prey: Interview with Yarimar Bonilla by Bill Moyers
En medio de una “devastación inimaginable el gobierno de Estados Unidos está ignorando a Puerto Rico”
Puerto Ricans call for Aid Amidst Catastrophe: We’re American Citizens. We Can’t be Left to Die.
Why would anyone in Puerto Rico want a hurricane? Because someone will get rich. (Washington Post)
How Colonialism in the Caribbean Affects Hurricane Prep and Recovery
#BlackLivesMatter: Anthropologists on Protest, Policing and Race-Based Violence
Video Clips
Other Sections
Books
Yarimar is a celebrated author and editor known for both her analytical acumen and lucid prose. Throughout her writings she explores how contemporary political actors navigate, contest, and transform the limits of modern politics across the Americas and beyond.
Digital Projects
Professor Bonilla has a strong interest in the role of digital technologies in the democratization of knowledge. She produces animated scholarly videos, public syllabi, and online scholarly resources.
Academic Articles
Writing broadly across disciplines and fields, Bonilla’s academic articles have tackled questions of coloniality, sovereignty, historicity, racial politics, digital ethnography, cartographic representation, and the politics of memory. At present she is committed to publishing solely in open-access platforms.