Interseminars Spotlight: Omar Agustin Hernandez

Omar Agustin Hernandez (Anthropology) is a member of the 24–25 graduate cohort for “Collisions Across Color Lines,” the third Interseminars project funded by the Mellon Foundation. Omar explained how his research interests and experience relates to Interseminars.

 

In what ways do your research interests connect to the theme “Collisions Across Color Lines?”

My research focuses on the Caribbean as a site where transnational processes of development, the capitalist structures that maintain them, and their socialist anticolonial alternatives all play a role in shaping the material conditions of the racialized populations who live there. More specifically I explore the contemporary possibilities for Cuban internationalism and “South-South” cooperation as forms of development, and how they materialize around Cuban institutions centered on sport and physical education. Internationalism and Third-World solidarity have been foundational components of the Cuban revolutionary project since its inception in 1959, but I’m interested in how they have evolved and are now practiced and embodied outside of government proclamations. The Caribbean itself was arguably where the original “Collisions across Color Lines” in the Americas took place. Its ongoing integration into globalized circuits of capital accumulation has led to novel discourses around race and racialization that require us to rethink the traditional theoretical frameworks which analyzed previous phases of the capitalist world-system.

How has the Interseminars initiative impacted the way you approach your research? 

The Interseminars initiative has already broadened the theoretical and methodological approaches that I will draw from for my research. Although the Anthropology department here at Illinois definitely emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to our work, Interseminars has given me the opportunity to more deeply collaborate with my peers in the arts in programs such as Dance and Art Education. Through these collaborations and our seminar I’ve been able to integrate new conceptualizations of the body and movement into my research, conceptualizations which are particularly important for thinking and writing critically about socialist sport.

Can you describe a group interaction or activity from Interseminars that has been particularly memorable?

A group interaction that has been particularly memorable for me was Dr. Gerald Horne’s visit at the start of the semester. Dr. Horne’s work has been pivotal to my intellectual and political development so far, so having the opportunity to attend his lecture and have him sit in on a seminar was remarkable. I came away from that visit with a deeper understanding of the importance of incorporating internationalist perspectives in my work, maintaining a rigorous desire to read and remain informed about the world outside of the US, and most importantly, always being humble and open to learn regardless of what stage of your academic journey you currently are in.

How will you bring interdisciplinary collaboration into the next phase of your graduate school experience?

The next phase of my graduate school experience will be taking my preliminary exams and beginning my dissertation research. Interdisciplinary collaboration will be a key component of every part of this phase, from selecting my dissertation committee to putting the methods and methodologies that we’ve studied in Interseminars into practice. I’m very conscious about how rare opportunities for deep interdisciplinary collaboration are in graduate school, so I plan on making the most of the remaining time left in the Interseminars initiative and carry the lessons I’ve learned through the next stages of my graduate school experience.