Building a better Caribbean through art, research, and community engagement.
Image: Wall Rubbings, Courtesy of La Vaughn Belle
“VISCO…aims to be attentive to the processes by which race, gender, class, sexuality, age, ability, and nationality frame the U.S. Virgin Islands and the power dynamics therein.”
St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, the group of islands currently known as the United States Virgin Islands (formerly the Danish West Indies) are crucial spaces for thinking through questions of sovereignty, personhood, and belonging. We are a group of academics, artists, and activists who are committed to centering the Virgin Islands as a site of inquiry and theorization beyond a notion of utopia or space that is not meaningfully occupied. As founders of VI Studies, we situate this field as a multidisciplinary framework through which we—and others—are able to study and understand the Virgin Islands.
About Us
The Virgin Islands Studies Collective is the visionary result of four Virgin Islands women from the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. We are a multidisciplinary collective whose research interests and artistic praxes center decolonial Black feminist orientations. Members of our team are well-versed in mediums such as painting, installation, writing, ethnography, and philosophical inquiry. Learn more about the members of our collective by clicking the button below!
Engaging & Reimagining
Virgin Islands Archives
A Virgin Islands Studies Conference
February 25-26, 2022, University of the Virgin Islands
In 2022, we are hosting a multidisciplinary conference explicitly dedicated to the Virgin Islands as a meaningful site of academic and artistic inquiry. Click the button below to learn more.
Contact VISCO
Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments. We look forward to hearing from you!
Email
vistudiescollective@gmail.com