Dr. Rachel Carrico (she/her) is a dance studies scholar who believes that art serves an essential function in the lives of all people, including as a tool for justice. Her classes on dance history and cultural studies regularly feature units on traditional and contemporary Indigenous dance of peoples in Mesoamerica, North America, and Australia. As a member of the School of Theatre + Dance’s Indigenous Community Relations Task Force, she helped draft the School’s first ever land acknowledgement. In an effort to put those words into meaningful action, Dr. Carrico collaborates annually with the Harn Museum of Art and the Gainesville Indigenous People’s Task Force to host a Native American dance group in an on-campus artist residency during Indigenous People’s Week each year. Her research focuses on African diaspora dance traditions in Bulbancha, commonly known as New Orleans, Louisiana. Her book, Dancing the Politics of Pleasure at the New Orleans Second Line (University of Illinois Press, 2024), reveals how dancers’ choices allow them to access the pleasure of reclaiming self and city through motion and rhythm. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance Studies at the University of Florida.