Cassie Osei
About Cassie Osei
Educational Background
- Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- M.A., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- B.A., University of Kansas
Teaching & Research Specialties
- Latin America & the Caribbean
- Brazil Since 1922
- African Diaspora
- Afro-Latin America
- Black Women's History
- Black Women's Labor
- Domestic Workers
- Black Diasporic Feminisms
Research Interests
Dr. Cassie Osei is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Bucknell University, where she is also affiliated faculty in the Latin American Studies program. She is a scholar working at the intersection of Latin American Studies, African Diaspora Studies, and Black Women’s History. Her scholarship, teaching and public speaking span the fields of Brazilian studies, Afro-Latin America, Black women’s intellectual thought, Black diasporic feminisms, urban history, gender and sexuality studies, global labor history, and comparative race relations.
Osei’s current book manuscript in progress is a women’s labor history of urban Afro-Brazilian domestic workers in modern Brazil. The book examines the lives of paid Afro-Brazilian female household workers in the twentieth-century. Her research reveals that, decade after decade, these women insisted on defining themselves as modern workers and dignified women, typically obscured by the loud legacies of slavery, colonialism, and patriarchy. Dr. Osei's peer-reviewed work appears in Palimpsest and Black Perspectives, whereas her public-facing work has been featured in BBC Brasil, PhDivas, História da Ditadura and Revista Cult. Her work has previously been supported through fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays and Foreign Language and Area Studies programs.