Participant Info

First Name
Okezi
Last Name
Otovo
Country
United States
State
FL Florida
Affiliation
Florida International University
Website URL
https://sipa.fiu.edu/people/faculty/history/otovo.okezi.html
Keywords
Latin America, Brazil, Afro-descendants, women and gender, motherhood, public health
Availability
1
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Dr. Okezi T. Otovo is Associate Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies and Affiliate Faculty of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center and of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at Florida International University.  She is author of Progressive Mothers, Better Babies: Race, Public Health, and the State in Brazil, 1850-1945 (University of Texas Press, 2016); a study that connects the history of cultural and medical ideas to the experiences of poor black families in institutions devoted to public health and social welfare within the context of abolition and state-building. Her current research investigates black maternity, racial disparities in health, and women’s life experiences in Miami (20th century). It analyzes black women’s bodily epistemologies in relation to their life histories, including experiences of sexuality, pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. At FIU, she teaches introductory, advanced, and graduate courses on Latin America, modern Brazil, and thematic topics such as gender, race, public health, and the social history of medicine. Dr. Otovo has published research articles in the Luso-Brazilian Review, Law and History Review, and the Revista da Associação Brasileira de Pesquisadores(as) Negros(as) as well as a number of book chapters and book reviews. She leads “The Black Mothers Care Plan” and “From Moments to Movements: Story-Telling as Epistemology in Black Maternal Health;” both are mixed research and community engagement projects.

Recent Publications
Media Coverage
Country Focus
Brazil
Expertise by Geography
Latin America, United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Emancipation, Family, Gender, Medicine, Race, Women