Wendell Marsh is Assistant Professor of African American and African Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. He is a post-disciplinary scholar of Islam in Africa, textuality, and the theory and practice of African Studies. His first research project on the Muslim polymath from colonial Senegal Shaykh Musa Kamara stages a reflection on the entanglements of Africa, Islam, and modernity, by way of a close study of the forms of textual knowledge produced by and about Kamara over the course of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Ford dissertation fellowship for his work.
His teaching interests include Islam in Africa, African Intellectual History, Postcolonial and Critical Theory, Religion and Politics, Francophone Literature and Culture, and Black Studies.
Originally from Atlanta, GA, Wendell stayed close to home to attend Morehouse College (’09) where he finished Phi Beta Kappa in English and French. But since, he has travelled, lived, studied and worked in France, Senegal, Morocco, Egypt, and Kenya. Upon graduation from college, Wendell was awarded the Fulbright fellowship to study Arabic in Egypt for 18 months.
Courses Taught
Islam and Blackness in Global History
African Civilizations
Education
Ph.D., Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, 2018.