Dakota Darwin

Professional Bio

Dakota Darwin is an English Master's Graduate on the M.A./PhD track at Pennsylvania State University. Their specific research focuses on the intersections of Afrofuturism, queer theory, feminist theory, with a broader consideration in global futurisms. In both their academic and creative work, they are interested in how Black speculative narratives dissent from Western Eurocentric thought and imagine worlds and futures that place marginalized bodies at its center. Their master's thesis "Immortal Blackness: Black Queer Desire, Kinship, and Futurity in Speculative Fiction," at Florida Atlantic University examines Black queer vampirism and the ways in which forms of deep intimacy function as transformative forces that reimagine kinship, survival, and futurity within the speculative.