New Books in Sociology Anita Gonzalez, "Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea" (U Michigan Press, 2025)
Jan 10, 2026
Anita Gonzalez, a Professor of performing arts and Black Studies at Georgetown University, explores her book, Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea. She discusses the layered performances aboard Caribbean cruise ships, linking them to historical maritime labor. Anita highlights how workers navigate identities in microspaces like cafeterias and corridors, and she connects sea shanties to African work songs, emphasizing their role in contemporary culture. She concludes by urging a re-examination of class as performance in the cruise industry.
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Ships As Continuous Theaters
- Anita Gonzalez connects 19th-century ship steward labor to contemporary cruise performance and Black theatrical practices.
- She argues ships are long-running theatrical spaces where servitude is continually performed by crew members.
Performance Is Built Into Cruise Roles
- Cruise lines hire lecturers who must entertain as well as inform, blending scholarship with showmanship.
- Crew members and passengers each perform classed roles that the ship sustains for months at a time.
The Ship As A Learning Space
- Gonzalez traces continuity from packet ships to modern cruise vessels in how sailors learn about other cultures aboard ship.
- She claims the ship itself functions as a primary site of cross-cultural learning, not just ports.
