AFIAfrican Feminist Initiative

Dr. Marouan’s scholarship engages the intersections of race, gender and religion in Africa and the African Diaspora

Specializations / Research Interest(s)

• Transnational Feminisms, African Feminisms
• African Women, Gender and Migration
• African and African Diaspora Religions
• Comparative Literature, Postcolonial literature (in French and English)
• Critical Race Theory, Comparative Racialization, Race and belonging in Africa and the African Diaspora

Courses

• UNDERGRADUATE: Women of the African Diaspora (WMNST 102), Global Feminisms (WMNST 200), Sexism and Racism (WMNST 103), African Diaspora Women Spirituality (AFAM 410)

• GRADUATE: Transnational Feminisms (WMNST 502), African Feminisms (WMNST 550), Gender and Sexualities in the African Diaspora (AFAM 503)

Titles & Affiliations

• Associate Professor of Women Gender and Sexuality Studies
• Associate Professor of African American Studies
• Affiliate faculty, African Studies
• Co-Director, African Feminist Initiative (https://afi.la.psu.edu/)

Publications

Fiction

• "Shame," Boston Review: A Political and Literary Forum, MIT Press, September 2019 (Nominated for the 2020 PEN America Award) http://bostonreview.net/arts-society/maha-marouan-shame

Books

• Witches, Goddesses and Angry Spirits: The Politics of Spiritual Liberation in African Diaspora Women’s Fiction, Ohio State University Press, 2013

Documentaries

• Voices of Muslim Women From the U.S. South, Women Make Movies, New York, 2015 (link to trailer: http://vimeo.com/81948323)

Recent Journal and Magazine Articles

• “Contemporary Notions of Race in Morocco: Blackness, Migration and the Legacy of Slavery,” in Jadaliyya (https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45492), November 15, 2023)
• “The Africanness of North Africa,” African Is a Country, April 25, 2023. https://www.africasacountry.com/2023/04/the-africanness-of-north-africa
• “Echoes From the World Cup: Morocco and the Politics of Belonging,” January 6, 2023, Cease Fire Magazine, Jan 6, 2023 (https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/echoes-world-cup-morocco-politics-belonging)
• Edited Series
  Maha Marouan, ed. African Women, Gender and Migration, Africa is a Country, 2022-2023 (https://africasacountry.com/series/african-women-gender-and-migration)
• “At the border, on the margins,” Africa Is a Country, October 10, 2022 (https://africasacountry.com/2022/10/at-the-border-on-the-margins)
•  “Santeria in Cuba: Contested Issues at a Time of Transition,” Transition: Magazine of Africa and the African Diaspora, Vol. 125, January 2018, pp. 57-70 (https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/issue-125)
• “Incomplete Forgetting: Race and Slavery in Morocco”, Journal of Islamic Africa. Vol.7, Issue 2, Fall 2016, pp. 267 – 271 (https://brill.com/abstract/journals/iafr/7/2/article-p267_6.xml)