Loading AI tools
Carla Martin is an American anthropologist.[1] Martin is a lecturer in African and African American studies at Harvard University.[2] Martin's main area of study is chocolate and cocoa production.
Martin was born in Weymouth, Massachusetts[3] and earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Harvard.[2] After college, Martin taught English in Cape Verda for three years.[4][2] There, she learnt about how the Portuguese government there had conscripted Cape Verdeans into indentured labor on cacao and sugar plantations until the 1960s.[3][2] It was from this experience that Martin has said she gained her interested in chocolate production.[4] In 2012, Martin completed her doctorate in African and African American Studies at Harvard.[2] The following year, she taught the class "Chocolate Culture and the Politics of Food" at Harvard for the first time.[2] In 2015, Martin founded the nonprofit Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI).[3] The FCCI researches and disseminates information about flavor cocoa to consumers and cacao farmers and laborers[3][1] and aims to make the chocolate supply chain more equitable.[3] As of 2019, the FCCI ran the New England Chocolate Festival.[4]
As of 2024, Martin still teaches the class Chocolate Culture.[3][2] The class covers chocolate tasting, the history of chocolate and other food commodities and how they relate to current cocoa production and race.[1] The class has received some attention from white supremacists.[2] Martin's work through Harvard and the FCCI uses chocolate as an opening for discussions around labor, human rights and politics.[3]
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
