Marcyliena Morgan

Marcyliena Morgan is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, serving as Executive Director of the HipHop Archive and Research Institute and Director of Graduate Studies.

Her educational background includes:

• B.A. and M.A. from University of Illinois at Chicago
• M.A. from University of Essex, England
• Ph.D. from Graduate School of Education at University of Pennsylvania

Professor Morgan's research examines urban speech communities, African Diaspora language practices, and hip hop culture through sociolinguistic and discourse analysis frameworks. She investigates how language constructs gender, national, and group identities—particularly among Black youth—and analyzes verbal performance traditions like signifying and toasts. Her work extends to language education policy for African American English speakers and creole language communities.

She has secured major research funding from the Ford Foundation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for fieldwork across the USA, England, and Caribbean. As founder of Harvard's HipHop Archive in 2002, she established a pivotal research center for hip hop scholarship while teaching courses on ethnography of communication, media representation, and race/class/gender dynamics.