Linda M. Heywood

Linda M. Heywood is a Professor of History and African American Studies at Boston University. Her research focuses on African history, the African Diaspora, and African American history, with a particular emphasis on Angola, colonialism, and cultural transformations. She has authored or co-authored influential books, including Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen (2017) and Central African, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of America (2007), which won the 2008 Melville Herskovits Award. Her work has appeared in journals such as The Journal of African History and Slavery and Abolition.

Education:

• B.A., Brooklyn College
• M.A. and Ph.D., Columbia University

Her research interests explore intersections of power, memory, and identity in the African Diaspora. She has consulted on major museum exhibitions like African Voices (Smithsonian) and TV series such as Henry Louis Gates' African American Lives (2006) and African Great Civilizations (2017). She serves on advisory boards, including the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center.

Awards:

• 2008 Melville Herskovits Award

Her current projects include a manuscript on Njinga of Angola, examining historical memory across continents.