Linda Heywood

Linda Heywood
Heywood in 2016
Born	1945 (age 78–79)
Occupation	Professor
Spouse	John Thornton
Awards	2008 Herskovits Prize (with John Thornton)
Academic background
Education	Brooklyn College (B.A.) Columbia University (Ph.D.)
Academic work
Institutions	Boston University

Linda Marinda Heywood (born Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago 1945) is a Caribbean-American historian and professor of African American studies and history at Boston University.^[1] Before coming to Boston University in 2003, Heywood taught at Howard University (1984-2003).

Heywood is a specialist in African history, with a particular interest in Angola. Her dissertation, published as Contested Power in Angola dealt with the transition of the Central Highlands kingdoms (Viye, Mbailundu, Wambo and others) from independence to colonial rule and included the liberation struggle and Angolan civil war from the 1840s to the 1990s. While at Howard, Heywood taught regularly in the required Black Diaspora class and as a became engaged in research on the African Diaspora, which resulted in the publication of her edited Central Africans and Cultural Transformations book and eventually Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles and the Foundation of the Americas. A long term interest in the life of Angolan Queen Njinga resulted in the publication of Njinga of Angola in 2017.

Heywood has a BA from Brooklyn College and a PhD from Columbia University.^[2] In 2008, she shared the Herskovits Prize for her book (co-authored with her husband John Thornton) Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.^[3]