J. Marlena Edwards

Professional Bio

J. Marlena Edwards, assistant professor of History, African American Studies and African Studies, completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Africana Research Center at Penn State after earning a dual-major Ph.D. in African American and African Studies and History from Michigan State University. Her research interests include multiethnic African American identities, Cape Verdean and Afro-Caribbean migration, U.S. Immigration, and African diaspora histories. She’s working on her first book documenting West Indian and Cape Verdean Immigrant communities and their lives after whaling in early twentieth century New England.