Ariana Costales-Del Toro
Caribbean Studies and Literature, Cultural Studies, Queer Studies, Race and Gender Dynamics, Women of Color Feminism, Decolonial Thought and Theory
Email: costale4@msu.edu
Ariana Costales Del Toro (She/Her) is a Ph.D. Candidate at Michigan State University’s English Department. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras campus. She recently completed a graduate specialization in Women and Gender Studies through the Center for Gender in Global Context at MSU. Her dissertation research looks at how contemporary queer Caribbean writers, artists and activists explore their relationship to Christianity and the Church through literature and performance. From 2022 to 2025, Ariana was a fellow of the Diaspora Solidarities Lab, where she worked to map, transcribe, and archive the work of the late photographer Frank Espada, who documented the Puerto Rican diasporic experience. You can find her latest academic work in the Centro Journal.