The Poetry Project

Alyssa A.L. James

Alyssa A.L. James stands facing the camera and smiling in front of a white wall
© Kamau Ware

Alyssa A.L. James is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University. She is a 2020 SSHRC Doctoral Fellow whose research examines the consequences of recasting colonial history for Caribbean subjectivities and futures. She interrogates the discourses and practices that transform commodities into heritage — and history into commodity — as it unfolds through Martinique’s nascent coffee revival project. In her free time, you’ll find Alyssa dancing, travelling, and writing about it.