Marcella Hayes

Marcella Hayes is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in Latin American and early modern Iberian history. Her research investigates how Black communities shaped political life in colonial Latin America through self-governance and corporate institutions.

Hayes' current book project examines how Black residents of seventeenth-century Lima created recognized corporate bodies like confraternities and militias that included both free and enslaved people. Her work demonstrates how these institutions enabled civic participation through legal claims, military service, and cultural festivals.

Her emerging research explores the role of Black town criers in information dissemination across the Iberian empire, analyzing how these positions facilitated Black participation in public communication systems.

Hayes teaches courses on colonial Latin America, modern Latin America, and histories of political mobilization, consistently emphasizing themes of race, gender, and resistance in her pedagogy.