Kiley Acosta

Profile picture of Kiley Acosta
Continuing Lecturer - Spanish

Office Location

Phelps Hall 6314

Education

Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico

M.A. in Hispanic Literature, University of New Mexico

Bio

Kiley Guyton Acosta is an ethnographer of Afro-Latinx expressive culture. Her research focuses on intersections of feminism, social justice artivism (art activism), and African diaspora identities in Cuba, Brazil and the Caribbean diaspora communities of the United States. Kiley is an experienced Spanish language instructor with a multi-disciplinary teaching background in the humanities. At UCSB, she is Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, where she teaches U.S. Latino Literature and language courses for heritage speakers of Spanish. Kiley has developed original undergraduate seminars in Black Studies and Feminist Studies, and currently serves as Teaching Fellow for The AfroLatinidades Institute Advanced Mentorship and Summer Research Program, a partnership between UCSB and historically Black Colleges and universities (HBCUs). Beyond academia, Kiley is an invited presenter for Smithsonian American Art Museums (SAAM) Teacher Institutes, where she has the opportunity to engage with K-12 instructors delivering summer teacher education workshops on arts integration in the classroom. Over the past decade, Kiley has garnered acclaim as a cultural interpreter, working alongside renowned artists, musicians and activists throughout the U.S. and Latin America on antiracism initiatives, including Cuban journalist Pedro Pérez Sarduy’s Afro-Cuban Voices. She continues to collaborate with the Smithsonian Institution as a bilingual Folklife Festival presenter, and is International Representative of Ojundegara, Cuba's award-winning Arará folkloric cultural ensemble.