About
Jean M.C. Marzán, is an Afro-Boricua scholar naturally from el barrio Río Lajas, Dorado, Puerto Rico. As an anthropologist and cultural historian, his research interests focus mainly on U.S. imperialism, modern settler colonial logic, and community socio-cultural transformations.
Since 2021, Jean has been part of the Afro-Diasporic and Race Studies Program at the University of Puerto Rico, helping to establish and expand this project into what is now the Afro-Diasporic and Racial Studies Research Center; the first official black-focused research center in the Puerto Rican archipelago. Through these efforts, Marzán was also involved in the logistical organization of the International Cumbre Afro, a conference that serves as a worthy and deserved platform for Afro-centered intellectuals in the Caribbean, Latin America, and its Diasporas.
As a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan, Jean uses urban history, ethnography, and theories of settler colonialism to explore how native/afro-descendant Puerto Ricans understand and have faced gentrification and displacement as a collateral effect of U.S. imperialism.
Fields of Study: Puerto Rican & Caribbean Studies, Settler Colonialism, Imperialism, Gentrification & Displacement, Urban History, African Diaspora, Race, Memory, Ethnography, Transculturation, and Latinx Studies.
