Anasa Hicks

Dr. Anasa Hicks ’07 is a professor of history at Florida State University specializing in Latin American and Caribbean history, with a focus on Cuba, women’s labor, and the legacies of slavery. A former editor of the Crane-Clarion and a known intellectual risk-taker at Cranbrook, Hicks attended the University of North Carolina on a prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship, originally planning to become a journalist. A formative study-abroad experience in Cuba sparked a lifelong interest in the region’s complex political and cultural history. After earning her Ph.D. from New York University, Hicks has gone on to publish research at the intersection of race, gender, and labor, and is currently completing a manuscript on Cuba’s post-emancipation society. A McKnight Fellow and founding member of the Tallahassee Bail Fund, she advocates for racial justice and prison abolition alongside her academic work. In 2020, Hicks returned to Cranbrook as the Cum Laude keynote speaker, encouraging students to recognize their power, trust their intellect, and take bold steps toward shaping the future.

 

Click here to watch her Cum Laude Induction Keynote Address.