Naliyah Kaya

Naliyah Kaya (TOTUS Instructor, she/her) is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Montgomery College. She previously served (2013-2018) as the first full-time Coordinator for Multiracial & Native American Indian/Indigenous Student Involvement in the Office of Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy (MICA) where she began to facilitate the TOTUS Spoken Word Experience Program in partnership with the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House. TOTUS utilizes the medium of storytelling through performance poetry to promote a greater understanding of social justice by examining self and society in relation to systems of power and inequality.  As a “poetic public sociologist,” Dr. Kaya infuses poetry and photography into her sociological work. Her poetry has been published in Hampton University’s literary magazine The Saracen, George Mason University’s Volition, Voices of the Future Presented by Etan Thomas and Spindrift Art & Literary Journal. She has hosted and planned numerous poetry events, facilitated courses and workshops in prison, middle schools, high schools, and universities, and presented at conferences such as Split This Rock Poetry Festival and Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru).