2026 RESEARCH FELLOWS: LAUREN BACCUS AND CRISTINA E. PARDO PORTO ADVANCING SCHOLARSHIP ON CARIBBEAN PHOTOGRAPHY

WOPHA / 04.14.2026

(Miami, April 13, 2026) Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) announces the recipients of the 2026 WOPHA Research Fellowship: Lauren Baccus and Cristina E. Pardo Porto. Now in its fourth edition, this eight-month program supports two exemplary research initiatives by emerging and established writers examining themes related to women and nonbinary voices in photography. The fellowship provides funding for the production of a scholarly essay, as well as opportunities for mentorship, networking, and publication. The 2026 fellows were selected through an open call juried by Raquel Villar-Pérez, independent researcher and curator of photography. 

This year’s selected projects contribute to the expansion of scholarship on Caribbean photography through distinct yet complementary approaches. Lauren Baccus’s proposal Intimate Archives and Black Feminist Memory positions Caribbean women’s photography as a practice of intimate archiving, centering images that hold family, kinship, and everyday life against the erasures of official history. Cristina E. Pardo Porto’s research, tentatively titled Blue Photographies, proposes an oceanic, Caribbean-centered rethinking of photographic history by asking what it means to think photography from Blue seawater. Engaging artists such as Widline Cadet, Samantha Box, and Nathyfa Michel, as well as Diana Eusebio, Andrea Chung, Nadia Huggins, Juana Valdés, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, and Joiri Minaya, the projects contribute knowledge and critical inquiry to their creative practices.

‘My work has often centered on how images circulate between personal memory and institutional frameworks; being selected as a WOPHA Fellow represents a crucial moment in the evolution of my practice, expanding how I think about authorship, visual archives, and the transmission of women’s histories across the Caribbean and its diaspora.’ – Lauren Baccus

‘Being part of a community that brings together different kinds of thinkers, cultural workers, artists, and curators is incredibly meaningful for my development as an interdisciplinary scholar. WOPHA brings together community, public engagement, and research, which makes this fellowship especially exciting and unique.’ – Cristina E. Pardo Porto

‘We are very excited about the work Lauren and Cristina will develop over the coming months. Their research will further WOPHA’s mission to support scholarship that redresses the absence of women in the history of photography and defines the specific nature and accomplishments of their contributions.’ — Aldeide Delgado

The WOPHA Research Fellowship fosters the next generation of photo critics and scholars working across diverse methods and literary forms, including critical, theoretical, speculative, philosophical, historical, and autobiographical approaches. While open in scope, the 2026 projects resonate with the organization’s ongoing engagement with Caribbean photographic histories. This alignment reflects WOPHA’s broader ecosystem of initiatives, including the Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) + WOPHA Fellowship, the research project First Was the Abyss, and the Caribbean Photography Research Group, which advance artistic production, scholarship, and archival practices across the region and its diasporas.

The 2025 – 2026 WOPHA Research Fellowship is supported by the Pérez CreArte grant program by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation and the Green Family Foundation. Cultural partners include The Betsy Hotel, Green Space Miami, and the Department of Art + Art History at Florida International University. 

About the Fellows

Lauren Baccus, is a Miami-based writer and researcher whose work centers on arts education, contemporary art, and Caribbean visual culture. Her practice foregrounds critical inquiry, close visual analysis, and community-grounded scholarship, with a particular interest in how images shape narratives of identity, memory, and belonging in the Caribbean and its diasporas. Drawing on experience across museums, cultural institutions, and independent projects, Lauren develops research-driven essays, lectures, and programs that make complex ideas accessible to broad publics while remaining grounded in rigorous scholarship. Her ongoing research examines the intersections of art, identity, performance, and material culture within Contemporary Caribbean art, informing her writing as well as her curatorial and educational work.

Cristina E. Pardo Porto is a scholar of Latinx and Latin American art and visual culture specializing in photography. She holds a PhD from the Graduate Center, CUNY, and is an assistant professor at Syracuse University. Her research examines the intersections of historical archives, race, gender, migration, and the environment in relation to Central America and the Caribbean. Her current book project offers a decolonial history of photography from the contemporary perspective of diasporic artists. Recent curatorial projects include the exhibition Joiri Minaya: Unseeing the Tropics at the Museum at Syracuse University Art Museum (Spring 2025). She is the coeditor of Plants and Animals in Latin American Cultural Production (University of Florida Press) and of two special issues of the journal Istmo, both titled Photography in, on, and from Central America. Her scholarly work includes published and forthcoming articles on art photography in Art Journal, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Hispanic Review, and MLN. Pardo Porto was the 2023–24 research fellow at the Syracuse University Humanities Center and a 2025 visiting fellow at the Bard Graduate Center.

About the juror

Raquel Villar-Pérez is a UK-based independent researcher, writer, and curator of photography. Her work focuses on image-makers engaging with migration, transnational feminisms, and social and environmental justice through decolonial and expansive approaches. She has collaborated with distinguished international art institutions including the Hanmi Museum of Photography (South Korea) and MAST Foundation (Italy). She serves as a juror for prestigious photography awards including the Photography Network Book Prize and the Project Grant Awards 2024, and the Hasselblad Award 2025 and 2026. Her writing appears in publications including C& América Latina, The Latinx Project, and the British Journal of Photography. She currently pursues a PhD at the Edinburgh College of Arts. She joined WOPHA as Editorial and Communications Manager in September 2025.

About WOPHA

Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Latinx art historian and curator Aldeide Delgado to research, promote, support, and educate on the contributions of women and non-binary photographers to modern and contemporary art in order to rewrite the artistic canon and provoke social change. WOPHA fosters a more diverse and equitable world by providing a permanent archive for future generations that preserves, documents, and promotes women photographers’ work while being a driving force for innovative thinking and discussion about the role of women in photographic arts.

About CreArte Grant Program

The Pérez CreARTE Grant Program, initiated by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation and The Miami Foundation, provides over $5 million in funding to Miami-Dade County arts organizations. It focuses on Arts Access, Arts Education, and Artist Fellowships/Residencies to elevate local arts, promote cultural equity, and support artists.

For more information:
Raquel Villar-Pérez, WOPHA Communications & Editorial Manager
rvillarperez@wopha.org
@wophafoundation #wophafoundation