Dr. Maha Marouan is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Women Studies at the Pennsylvania State University.  Her work focuses on the intersection of race, gender and religion in the construction of female subjectivities.

 

She was born and grew up in Morocco and spent most of her adult life in Europe. Her interaction with different languages and cultures (she speaks four languages: Arabic, French, Spanish and English, and lives between three continents: Africa, Europe and the U.S.) has given her a transnational and transcultural vision that is reflected in her work and teaching. Dr. Marouan has been conducting study abroad programs in the U.S. academy since 2007, and is currently conducting a graduate seminar in Cuba on "Race, Gender and Religion in Cuba" that she started in 2013. 

 

Her most recent publications include Witches, Goddesses and Angry Spirits: The Politics of Spiritual Liberation in African Diaspora Women’s Fiction, (Ohio State University Press, 2013), a co-edited volume on Race and Displacement: Nation, Migration and Identity in the Twenty-First Century (University of Alabama Press, 2013), and a documentary entitled "Voices of Muslim Women." See link to the trailer: http://vimeo.com/81948323

 

Dr. Marouan teaches undergraduate courses on  "African Diaspora Religions", "Women of Color from a Cross-Cultural Perspective",  "Women in Islam",   "Women in the  African Diaspora" and graduate seminars on "Gender, Race and Immigration",  "Transnational Feminisms" and "Third World Feminisms".

Her academic affiliations are: The African Diaspora Religions Group at the American Academy of Religion (Founder),  National Women’s Studies Association African Studies Association, Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (Programming Committee), Journal of African Religions (Editorial board), African Studies Association, The Collegium for African American Research.