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Marika Preziuso (she, her, ella), PhD. MA, is Professor of World Literature and Chairperson of the Humanities department. Marika was born in Southern Italy and moved to the United Kingdom to pursue and obtain an M.A. in Gender, Society, and Culture, and later a Ph.D. in Literature from the Caribbean Diaspora, both at the University of London.

Marika’s classes focus on 20th-century and contemporary postcolonial literature, particularly by migrant and diasporic writers. They adopt strategies of resistance and ‘opacity’ (E. Glissant) that challenge Western imaginaries of otherness and create syncretic, radical spaces for themselves and their art. Some of Marika’s classes are FRSM Self, Craft, World, Imagining Others: from Strangers to Others, Women’s Lit in Comparative Perspective, the Future of the American Dream, and Intercultural Lab for Artists + Designers.

At MassArt, Marika organizes Creative Counterpoints ( 2016-), the annual lecture series devoted to the intersections of narratives of creativity and difference as investigated by visual artists, writers, public intellectuals, and other culture makers.

Her long-standing research and practice of intercultural and equitable pedagogy have led her to facilitate professional development workshops with MassArt and Grub Street faculty and, more recently, to join the faculty-led team designing the new MassArt Learning & Teaching Center (CLT).

Marika loves and lives by this quote by Audre Lorde: “When I define myself, the place in which I am like you and the place in which I am not like you, I’m not excluding you from the joining—I’m broadening the joining.” In Marika’s words, “It captures my belief in the power of differences as a space of connection, understanding, and mutual growth. Lorde reminds us educators not to be afraid of our respective differences but to seek them out as catalysts of the learning process.”

Marika is a daily, messy journaler turned poet. Her poems have been published in the Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis and Anvil Tongue Books. Her writing recalls instances of geographical and emotional displacement, moments of intercultural tension, and the joy that comes from honoring the intended opacity of a text or a person. She loves black cats (especially Nova, the kitty in her heart) and practices yoga as a meditation in motion.

Marika Preziuso Resume

Connect with Marika:

• Creative Counterpoints
• Marika Preziuso on Academia.edu

Industry Experience

Awards

MassArt Curriculum Development Grant 2017
Engaging Pedagogy Faculty Incubator. Co-submitted with Lyssa Palu-ay, Dean of Justice, Equity and Transformation, & Jeanette Eberhardy, Associate Professor, Liberal Arts Department

MassArt Foundation Fellowship Grant 2014
Transnational Feminism as Artistic and Pedagogic Practice

Emilia Galla Struppa Fellowship Grant 2011
Research, South Atlantic Studies, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, Charlottesville, VA

University of London Research Grant 2003
University of Havana, Cuba, and the University of the Antilles and Guyana (UAG), Schœlcher, Martinique

Professional Affiliations

Grub Street Writing Center (Boston, MA):
Professional Development Facilitator: Intercultural Pedagogy for Writing Instructors

Clark University, Worcester (MA):
Professional Development Facilitator: Intercultural Pedagogy for Writing Instructors

Cambridge Center of Adult Education (CCAE), Cambridge, Boston
Instructor of Found in Translation – a creative writing course for multilingual writers.

Various Locations, Boston (Brookline Public Library, The Makery Art Studio, Downunder School of Yoga)
Write Yourself Alive: Creative Writing & Meditation workshop