Marissa J. Moorman is Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Her research focuses on politics and culture in colonial and independent Angola.

Author of two books: PowerfulFrequencies: 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 (OhioUniversity Press, 2008), she is at work on a book about the Luanda Trial of Mercenaries in 1976, entitled “Imperialism on Trial.”

In 2025-26 she was a George F. Kennan funded member of the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Fellowshipsfrom ACLS, Fulbright Hays, and the SSRC have supported her research.

In addition topublished journal articles and book chapters on music, fashion, film, radio, and urban space, Moorman has worked on co-edited volumes and special issues.

She has worked closely with Hangar Centro de Investigação Artística on three publications: Atlântica: Contemporary Artfrom Angola (2018), Qnotes(2021), and Atlântica: Contemporary Artfrom Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tome and Príncipe (2021). In 2024she collaborated with artists Mónica de Miranda, Sónia Vaz Borges, and Vania Gala on the catalogue for Greenhouse, the Portuguese pavilion at theVenice Biennial, and curated two events on sound.

She has co-edited three special issues of the Radical HistoryReview: issue 131 The Global South: History, Politics, Maps (2018) andissue 141 Breaking News (2021) and Radical Histories of Decolonization (2025).

Moorman was an editor of The Journal of African History from2020-2025, serves on the editorial collective of The Radical History Review, was a member of the editorial boardof Africa is a Country from 2014-2024.

Her opinionpieces have been published in Jornal deAngola, Novo Jornal, and The Guardian.