Dr. Marianela Muñoz is Associate Professor in the School of Philology, Linguistics, and Literature at the University of Costa Rica. She received her Bachelors in Spanish Philology and Masters in Literature from the University of Costa Rica, an MBA in Cultural Institutions from the University of Salamanca and a PhD in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, with portfolios in African and African Diaspora Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies. A Fulbright-Laspau scholar, her current book project (based on her dissertation) analyzes the political praxis and choices of Black women in State Politics in Costa Rica from a historical, ethnographic, decolonial and intersectional approach. Other research interests include: Latin American cultural and political studies: race and ethnicity in Latin America; Indigenous and Black epistemologies; feminist decolonial and Black cultural studies; Mestizo nationalisms and cultural productions in Latin America; multicultural policies.