For Dying to Eat?, Naya created GIFs that bear witness to African-American and Black Latinx testimonies of racial profiling in food spaces. Naya witnessed testimonies previously captured in interviews and news stories through embodied inquiry and virtual storytelling. Witness the virtual exhibit, and download the article by the same name. More >>
Revisiting Black Gardens
{2007-present} Naya’s research on Black diaspora gardens began in Mexico, when she studied Afromexican botanical medicine as a MA student. Grounded in Black ecologies, her current research and collaborations consider Black botanical knowledge in the context of spatial injustice and community health using a range of (ethno)botanical, embodied, and arts-based methods. More >>
Critical Food Geographies & Pedagogies
{2012-Present} How do Black youth experience food in a gentrifying city? This question inspired Naya’s early research with Black youth in Austin, Texas. Naya has also focused on food pedagogies, or teaching and learning about food, in classrooms, gardens, and public settings for research and as the past co-founder of Food for Black Thought (with her partner Dr. Kevin Thomas). More >>
