New Student Member Feature: Déandra Grace
Déandra Grace is a Barbadian curator, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans film, fine and digital art. Rooted in her Caribbean heritage, her practice explores femininity, sexuality, spirituality, nationalism, and migration, often reflecting the intersection of personal identity and collective experience. Beginning in theatre and dance, her work has evolved into a dialogue between self and society. She holds a BFA in Creative Arts (Film) from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, and is currently reading for an MA in Cultural Studies (Curatorial Practice) at the University of Winnipeg. For Déandra, art is both catharsis and conversation.
Déandra is the CRiCS Research Assistant for the 2025-26 academic year.
Learn more about Déandra in the short interview below:
CRiCS: What brought you to academia and, more specifically, Cultural Studies?
DG: Simply put, the desire to know myself and by extension my ancestors.
Since beginning my journey in cultural studies the notion of “Sankofa” has been my guiding principle, fueling my curiosities and steering the course. Sankofa being the name of an Adinkra symbol with two visual variations, both symbolizing the act of returning to the past to inform the present and the future. Learning under the tutelage of Russell Watson and Dr. Yanique Hume in the classroom spaces of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, artist talks moderated by Dr. Therese Hadchity and virtual colloquiums with Echoes in the Africana World have all brought me closer to my foremothers and fathers. Teaching me what they did prior and opening my eyes to how much of it has evolved and is still relevant in the contemporary moment.
CRiCS: What are your areas of research interest?
DG: Hailing from the small island developing state of Barbados, my work is deeply concerned with matters of nationality.
In a broader sense, my areas of interest are Caribbean Art History, Caribbean Culture and African Traditional Religions. Within each of these general themes I explore femininity, spirituality and the intersection of personal identity and collective experience.
CRiCS: What do you hope to gain from your time in Cultural Studies and as a student member of CRiCS?
DG: Maya Angelou in her essay “Passports to Understanding” encourages travel for the sake of acknowledging that “the world is populated by people who not only speak differently from oneself but whose cultures and philosophies are other than one's own.”
I expect to learn the general theoretical framework of Cultural Studies but I hope that engaging with classmates and professors from varying backgrounds will be enriching to the end of deconstructing unconscious biases that I may hold.
CRiCS: What has been one of your most meaningful research encounters?
DG: In June of this year I was invited to present my undergraduate thesis “She Paradise” to the 2025 Routes to Roots of Caribbean Culture cohort. This represented the first in person presentation of the work since capstone in May of the previous year. I took this as an opportunity to show an excerpt of the film and the journal I kept during the creation of the documentary and accompanying exhibition.
The feedback from Dr. Patricia Turley, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Indiana University Indianapolis, came in the form of a challenge. She noted that I ask myself a lot of questions but I need to start pushing myself to come up with the answers. With each article I read, her advice rings in my ears and it has shifted my research process significantly.
CRiCS: Has any particular book/film/work of art/etc. influenced your approach to your academic work and your perspective more generally?
DG: At the beginning of my undergraduate capstone journey, the course facilitator Dr. Rainy Demerson had the class read an excerpt of Professor Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s speech from CARIFESTA V entitled The New Aesthetics and the Nature of Culture in the Caribbean “The Dream Coming in with the Rain.” The speech not only influenced the thesis I produced that year but Kamau’s words have been instrumental as I come to terms with the role I am taking on not just as a curator but a “strict guardian” of my heritage as Irving Burgie penned in Barbados’ national anthem.
Speaking about identifying and producing works of the Caribbean aesthetic he notes that ”we are only in the business of beginning to know what the aesthetic is.” Determined to be apart of the aesthetical exercise he implies is past due, I think on his definition of aesthetic; “the aesthetic is a critical communal sense of the essence of one’s culture.” His invitation to be critical, asking questions of quality, standard and form rather than simply being a “spectator to our own culture” reminds me of Professor Turley’s challenge to me. He echoes the ancestral principle of Sankofa by insisting one have a sense of history and the landscape so as to show the continuity of the “patriarchs of culture.” He warns that an aesthetic primarily of the individual and ego does not foster an awareness of [Caribbean] style. His use of the word communal inspired my research goal to find the intersection of personal identity and collective experiences each of my areas of interest.
CRiCS: What do you do in your free time (if you have any!)? Do you have any hobbies or pets?
DG: This desire to be a curator, much less an academic is a relatively new one and prior to that I have always considered myself an artist. Moving as the spirit of the wind does between different mediums I prioritize making time to create. For me my work provides me with a sense of catharsis and is an integral part of my spiritual practice.