Alicia Díaz joined UR's Department of Theatre and Dance in 2011, where she teaches contemporary dance, improvisation, composition, and community-engaged courses on dance for social change. As a Puerto Rican contemporary dance artist in the diaspora Alicia's work speaks to issue of memory and identity, migration, colonialism, and the legacy of slavery. Her recent award-winning dance film Entre Puerto Rico y Richmond: Women in Resistance Shall Not Be Moved, weaves stories of anti-colonial and feminist activism through the history of tobacco in Puerto Rico and Virginia. Trained in modern dance at The Ailey School and later in postmodern dance at Movement Research in NYC, Alicia has performed nationally and internationally with Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Andanza: Puerto Rican Contemporary Dance Company, Donald Byrd/The Group (The Harlem Nutcracker), Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre, Maida Withers Dance Construction Company, as well as numerous independent choreographers including Marion Ramírez, Sally Silvers, and Alejandra Matorell. She co-directed Rubí Theatre, a Latinx, intergenerational theater ensemble in New York City; en la brega dance company, with Puerto Rican dance artist Ñequi González; and Agua Dulce Dance Theater, with movement artist Matthew Thornton, creating works for concert dance, museums, and site-specific locations. Her collaborations with percussionist Héctor "Coco" Barez engage Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba as an embodied form of resistance, healing, and liberation. Her work has been presented in the United States, Spain, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico. Alicia serves on the Board of Pepatián: Bronx Arts CoILABorative, and organization that supports Latinx, Black, Afro-Latinx, Caribbean, Latin American, and indigenous artists. Alicia's work is featured in the recent publication Inhabiting the Impossible: Dance and Experimentation in Puerto Rico, the first book if its kind to survey the field of Puerto Rican experimental dance across four decades. The book was selected as the 2023 Dance Studies Book by the Dance Studies Association.