Dr. Nikoli Attai is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is currently working on his first book manuscript titled “Real Queer? Interrogating Human Rights Activism in the Queer Caribbean,” and is co-editing an anthology of essays titled “Free Up Yuhself: Transgressive Bodies and Contestations in the Carnivalesque.” Dr Attai is also curating an archive of Trinidad and Tobago’s queer history, as part of a larger project that traces legacies of queer community making and resistance in the Caribbean.
Dr. Attai has recently published two peer- reviewed essays. His latest (2019) essay, “LGBT Rights, Sexual Citizenship, and Blacklighting in the Anglophone Caribbean: What Do Queers Want, What Does Colonialism Need?”, appears in the Oxford Handbook of LGBT and Sexual Politics, while another (2017) titled “Let’s Liberate the Bullers: Toronto Human Rights Activism and Inplications for LGBT Activism”, is published in the Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies. Four other essays are currently in press and scheduled for publication shortly.
Dr. Attai’s other research and scholarly interests include queer carnival tourism in Trinidad and Tobago, transgressive community making in the Caribbean and social media visibility by gender-nonconforming people in the Caribbean.
Recent Publications:
Peer Reviewed Articles
“Revisiting LGBT Rights in the Caribbean: Talking Across Difference” (Co – authored with Cornel Grey). In The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Studies, edited by Michael Bosia, Sandra M. McEvoy, and Momin Rahman. 2019. https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780190673741-e-15.
“Let’s Liberate the Bullers! Toronto Human Rights Activism and Implications for Caribbean Strategies.” In Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies Volume 42 No. 3, 2017.
Forthcoming – In Press
Ah Come Out to Play: Manoeuvring the Politics of Carnival Tourism Heteronormativity in Trinidad and Tobago. In Carnival, Culture and Tourism, edited by Violet Cuffy. CABI Press, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.
Tales from the Field: Myths and Methodologies for Researching Same-Sex Desiring People in the Caribbean. (Co-authored with K. Nandini Ghisyawan, Rajanie Preity Kumar and Carla Moore for Special Issue Journal Beyond Homophobia: Centering LGBT Experiences in the Caribbean). UWI Press, Kingston Jamaica.
Other Writing
Newspaper articles
2018
Love wins –resisting hatred, building community and forging change in the Caribbean. Stabroek News – In the Diaspora. April 16, 2013. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2018/features/in-the-diaspora/04/16/love-wins-resisting-hatred-building-community-and-forging-change-in-the-caribbean/
Reports
2017
“Trinidad and Tobago School Climate Report: Bulling and Gender-Based Violence in Secondary Schools.” (Contributing author with Krystal Ghisyawan and Darren J. Glenn for the Silver Lining Foundation for Published the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Associated Schools Network Trinidad and Tobago, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)