Xavi Luis Burgos

Bio

Xavi Luis Burgos is a Ph.D. student at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, researching the pedagogical, political, and prophetic histories and strategies of Caribbean communities, with a focus on African diasporic religious traditions.

A longtime educator, writer, organizer, artist, and curator, Xavi’s work includes developing and directing educational programming utilizing public art, film, poetry, photography, and popular education on radical histories, community organizing, LGBTQAI cultures, Caribbean religions, and sexual health. He co-founded the ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE! campaign, which worked to assemble resources and agitate consciousness of gentrification in Chicago. He served on the board of Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation, one of Chicago’s largest affordable housing developers. He co-developed, curated, and moderated the Afrorriqueñes symposium, exploring Afro-puertorriqueñidad between Puerto Rico and Chicago. He was Editor-in-Chief of Que Ondee Sola, and published essays in Gozamos, La Voz del Paseo Boricua, Claridad, and 80 grados. Xavi is the co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of La Respuesta, a publication that cultivated bridges between the diverse communities of the Puerto Rican Diáspora.

During his first year at Stanford University, Xavi co-founded and directed the grant-funded Hemispheric Racializations Working Group via the Center for Latin American Studies, organizing seminars with scholars engaging race and racial formations in the social sciences and humanities. Xavi also co-organized the symposium “The Queer Caribbean: Inheritances, Embodiments, and Possibilities”, curating and moderating the panel “Queer Performance Practices in Puerto Rico & Its Diaspora”. In the summer of 2022, Xavi was awarded the Tinker Graduate Field Research Grant from the Center for Latin American Studies to conduct preliminary research on African diasporic religious phenomena in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. For his second year, he founded the Caribbean Revelations Working Group, curating and moderating discussions with artists, activists, and mental health professionals. Xavi also co-organized the symposium “Caribbean Epistemologies” and moderated the panel “Thinking Through Hispaniola” with leading artists and scholars on Haiti and the Dominican Republic. For the summer of 2023, Xavi was selected as an Artist-In-Residence at Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil through the Committee on Black Performing Arts / Institute for Diversity in the Arts. For his third year, Xavi was selected as a Graduate Scholar-in-Residence at El Centro Chicano y Latino.

Xavi’s scholarly interests include, but are not limited to: visual and performance art | the sanctification of the body and space | martyrdom | political theory | embodied religious knowledges and material cultures | Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies | ancestor veneration and spirit possession | youth movements and popular educational projects | the politics of memory and pedagogies of remembrance | the logics of race. Methodological interests include: indigenous, queer, feminist, black, latinx, and chicanx methodologies | critical race theory | ethnography.

Honors & Awards

• Graduate Scholar-in-Residence, El Centro Chicano y Latino (2023)
• Fellow, Institute for Diversity in the Arts/ Committee on Black Performing Arts (2023)
• Grant Awardee & Coordinator, Caribbean Revelations Working Group, Center for Latin American Studies (2023)
• Grant Awardee & Coordinator, Hemispheric Racializations Working Group, Center for Latin American Studies (2022)
• Grant Awardee, Tinker Graduate Field Research Grant, Center for Latin American Studies (2022)
• Fellow, Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Fellowship (EDGE) (2021)