About

Biography

Florencia V. Cornet credits her multicultural and multi-lingual background for her interdisciplinary approach to teaching, research, and scholarship. Born and raised on the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao it became second nature for her to explore life in multi-layers. The psycho-social intricacies that make up the eclectic Curaçaoan people are reflected in much of her research and publications. She obtained a BA in General Experimental Psychology (1996) followed by a CGS in Women’s Studies (2000) both from the University of South Carolina. Later, she pursued an MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (2004) at the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany), and finally a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with specialization in Comparative Black Gender Studies, Black Diaspora Studies, and Cultural Studies (2012) from the University of South Carolina. Dr. Cornet was awarded several prestigious fellowships, such as: the Ford Fellowship in Gender Studies in Global Perspective (2001) from UAlbany; a Fellowship on Women and Public Policy (2003) from the Center for Women in Government at the Rockefeller College at UAlbany, and the prestigious International AAUW Fellowship (2008). Dr. Cornet has worked professionally in several non-profit organizations in Curaçao. This includes serving as the Director of the Center for Women’s Development-SEDA (2001), Adjunct Director at the Child Development Center/Casa Cuna Mercedes Winkel (2006), and Management Consultant for the Youth and Child Care Foundation in Curaçao (2006).

Dr. Cornet is a full-time faculty in the Opportunity Scholars Program and coordinates the Opportunity Scholars’ Math, Intensive Writing, and Interactive Language Center, and the Opportunity Scholars’ Cultural Enrichment Component at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Cornet is also an associate faculty of Latin American Studies, and an affiliate faculty of African American Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her areas of teaching and research specialization include Latin American, Caribbean, and US Afro-Latino/a Cultures; Gender Studies in Global Perspective; and Studies in Global Blackness. Some of Dr. Cornet’s publications appear in Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies; Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender, the Black International; Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro Latin American Biography; and Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies.
Dr. Cornet is the founder of The Dutch Caribbean Think Tank for Caribbean, Latin American and Latina/o Cultural Studies, an internationally based intellectual space that supports the study and dissemination of information about transnational cultures of the Americas and the Caribbean. The Think Tank is especially focused on the Dutch Caribbean diaspora as this is one of the lesser explored regions of the Caribbean.