Professor Marc Hertzman has been named a University Scholar in recognition of his excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.
The scholars program recognizes faculty excellence and provides $15,000 to each scholar for three years to enhance their academic careers. The money may be used for travel, equipment, research assistants, books or other purposes.
Hertzman specializes in the history of Brazil and Latin America with special interests in race, the African diaspora, culture, slavery and its legacies, labor, and gender. Hertzman has additional affiliations at Illinois with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies.
While his previous work focused on the 19th and 20th centuries, Hertzman's current scholarship explores deeper into the past: the colonial era of Brazil. Specifically, he has examined the afterlives and cultural, spiritual, physical and monetary inheritances of Palmares, one of history’s largest and longest-standing fugitive slave settlements, and its iconic leader, Zumbi. His resulting 2024 book, After Palmares: Diaspora, Inheritance, and the Afterlives of Zumbi, won the American Historical Association's 2025 James. A Rawley Prize in Atlantic History and the Brazilian Studies Association's 2026 Roberto Reis Book Award. Hertzman values the impact of public engagement and has shared his expertise in written pieces for New York Magazine and Time as well as appearances on Al-Jazeera to provide commentary and news analysis on Brazil.
Hertzman is known for cultivating intellectually vibrant, inclusive classrooms that connect historical study to the present while offering sustained mentorship far beyond the classroom. He has received a variety of teaching awards, including the 2026 College of LAS Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the 2026 campus Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the Department of History 2024 George S. & Gladys W. Queen Excellence in Teaching Award.