Désirée Díaz received her Ph.D. in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her B.A. in Art History from the University of Havana (Cuba). Professor Díaz works in Latin American and Caribbean literature and visual culture, and the culture of Latinos in the US. Her research focuses on issues of alternative citizenship, human and cultural geography, diaspora and transnational movements, urban studies, and popular and material cultures.

Her book Ciudadanías liminales. Vida cotidiana y espacio urbano en la Cuba postsoviética (Almenara, 2021), discusses the production of alternative spaces and forms of citizenship participation in post-Soviet Cuba. Professor Díaz has also published a number of articles on Cuban cinema and literature in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. In her native Cuba, Désirée Díaz served as a researcher with the prestigious Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) and as Assistant Editor of the cultural magazine La Gaceta de Cuba.