George and Ann RichardsCivil War Era Center

J. Marlena Edwards, assistant professor of African American Studies and History, completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Africana Research Center at Penn State after earning a dual-major Ph.D. in African American & 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.

Research Interests:

African American and African Diaspora History and Culture

Assistants:

• Barby A. Singer