DEPARTMENT OF BLACK STUDIES

Research Interests:

20th-century Afro-Latin American and Caribbean History; Haitian and Haitian Diaspora Studies; Histories of Race, Empire, and Migrant Labor in the Caribbean; Border Policing and Detention; Caribbean Feminisms; Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Social Movements and Political Thought.

Biography:

Marissa Joseph (she/her/ella) is a Black Studies PhD Student and Mellon Cluster Fellow in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Northwestern University. Her research investigates the intertwined histories of race, migration, and citizenship in 20th-century Haiti and the Hispanic Caribbean. 

Marissa’s work asks how Haitian migrants challenged the racial, legal, and national boundaries imposed upon them as they migrated throughout the Hispanic Caribbean. Centering Haitian mobility, political organizing, and diasporic cultural production, her research explores how Haitian communities have shaped broader struggles over Blackness, antiracism, and belonging in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.  

Marissa holds a B.A. in History and Literature from Harvard University, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow. At Northwestern, she extends her commitment to Caribbean scholarship and intellectual community-building as the founder and co-lead of the Caribbean Studies Working Group.