Tinsley is F.O. Matthiessen Visiting Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Harvard University and associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Associate Director of the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches the popular course “Beyoncé Feminism, Rihanna Womanism.” Tinsley is the author of Thiefing Sugar: Eroticism between Women in Caribbean Literature and Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders.