Marissa Moorman

Education

• PhD’04 University of Minnesota

Bio

Marissa J. Moorman is Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin –Madison and the Faculty Director of the African Studies Program. Her research focuses on politics and culture in colonial and independent Angola. Author of two books: Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002 (Ohio University Press, 2019) and Intonations: a Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, 1945-Recent Times (Ohio University Press, 2008), she is at work on a book about the Luanda Trial of Mercenaries in 1976, tentatively titled “Imperialism on Trial.” With Sean Jacobs, she is co-writing A People’s History of Contemporary Africa, under contract with Columbia University Press. Fellowships from ACLS, Fulbright Hays, and the SSRC have supported her research. In the 2025-26 she will be a member of the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University.

In addition to published journal articles and book chapters on music, fashion, film, radio, and urban space, Moorman has worked on co-edited volumes and special issues. Recently, she has worked closely with Hangar Centro de Investigação Artística on three publications: Atlântica: Contemporary Art from Angola (2018), Qnotes (2021), and Atlântica: Contemporary Art from Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tome and Príncipe (2021). She has co-edited two special issues of the Radical History Review: issue 131 The Global South: History, Politics, Maps (2018) and issue 141 Breaking News (2021) and is currently editing an issue of RHR on Decolonization.

Moorman was an editor of The Journal of African History from 2020-2025, serves on the editorial collective of The Radical History Review, and was a member of the editorial board of Africa is a Country from 2014-2024. Her opinion pieces have been published in Jornal de Angola, Novo Jornal, and The Guardian.

Awards

• Member, School for Historical Studies, IAS, Princeton, 2025-26
• Vilas Research Associate, 2024-26
• Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship, 2010-2011
• ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) Fellowship, 2010-2011

Personal Website

Current CV

Selected Publications

• Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1933-2002 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2019) .
• Intonations: A Social History of Music and Nation in Luanda, Angola, from 1945 to Recent Times (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008).
• “Luanda Humms and Buzzes: Urban Soundscapes, Club Music, and Dance, 1960-present,” forthcoming in Goethe Institut’s Johannes Hossfeld, Joyce Nyairo, and Florian Sievers, eds., Ten Cities: Berlin, Bristol, Cairo, Johannesburg, Kiev, Lagos, Lisbon, Luanda, Nairobi, Naples (Leipzig: Spector, 2020), 169-179.
• Co-editor with Mónica de Miranda, Ana Balona de Oliveira, and Afonso Ramos, Atlantica: Contemporary Art in Angola and Its Diaspora (Lisbon: Hangar productions, March 2019).
• “Bonga’s Transatlantic Routes,” Revista TransVersos revista de história, no. 15 (Jan-Abr), 2019: 445-452 [P].
• With Delinda Collier, “Medium and media in Angola: expressive practices in context,” in De Miranda, Moorman, Oliveira, and Ramos, Atlantica: Contemporary Art in Angola and Its Diaspora, (Lisbon: Hangar productions, March 2019), 209-214.