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about Tashima Thomas, Ph.D.

Tashima Thomas is an art historian, gastronome, and cultural critic specializing in the art of the African Diaspora in the Americas. She received her PhD in Art History from Rutgers University in 2017. Her research examines food pathways, visual and material culture, racial formation, Afro-Gothic as an aesthetic and theoretical framework, and the environmental humanities. Her book manuscript Edible Extravagance: The Visual Art of Consumption in the Black Atlantic is currently under contract with SUNY Press, The Afro-Latinx Futures Series. She is also co-editor of the forthcoming, Flora Fantastic: From Orchidelirium to Eco-Critical Contemporary Botanical Art published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. She is a recipient of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery Long-Term Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (2019-2020); the Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship; and the Smithsonian’s Goldman Sachs Multicultural Afrolatino Junior Fellowship at The National Museum of American History. Thomas is an Assistant Professor in the Art History department of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. She is the founder of the art and culture platform papayarose.com and her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, exhibition catalogues and edited volumes.

papayarose is a gastronomic theater of art, food, and culture. We are interested in storytelling, mythmaking, and cooking up new adventures in the visual, culinary, and performing arts. papayarose is a platform devoted to diversity in action and sharing the abundance of our creative flow.