We are thrilled and honored to announce that Dr. Marlaina Martin will be serving as the Department of Anthropology’s very first UMD Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow during AY20-21. 

Dr. Martin is a cultural anthropologist with specific expertise in the politics of disenfranchisement, particularly among Black women, and the ways in which power and powerlessness are constructed in visual representations.

Dr. Martin will spend the next academic year working on several writing projects, including a book, critically examining the production and distribution strategies employed by Black women filmmakers, especially as they navigate issues of race, gender, and class. She will also expand her research to include multimedia projects centering the voices of Black artists from various backgrounds. Finally, Dr. Martin and Dr. Thurka Sangaramoorthy will collaborate to extend Dr. Martin's research agenda to focus on Black women’s voices in the realm of health and racial justice using visual, media-based, and digital humanities methods.

Congratulations, Dr. Martin!