Faculty Profile

Dr. Presswood attended Morehouse College where he received his B.A. in History with a focus on East Asian Studies. In 1997, while a student at the HBCU he studied abroad for six months in China. Later, he would move back to East Asia living in Japan for two years and China for ten years. In 2005, Marketus founded and operated the first African American-owned study abroad organization focused exclusively on increasing the number of African American students studying overseas. In five years, his organization successfully matriculated dozens of Black students on his China program.

In 2010, He earned a master’s degree in International Public Service Management from DePaul University where conducted research in India and China for his master’s thesis-- a comparative analysis of small and large-scale environmental project management in China and India—interviewing a host of officials in Beijing, China and Pune, India.

Dr. Presswood completed his doctorate program at the University of California—Irvine in Modern Chinese History with an emphasis on both the Republican Era (1912-1949) and the post 1949 era, examining the historical record of socio-cultural interactions between Africa and the African Diaspora and Chinese in the 20^th century. His expertise also includes 20^th century U.S. History, 20^th century African American History, Jazz History, Race and Racism, and Black Internationalism.  Marketus has contributed to mainstream periodicals like The Atlantic-- https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/07/on-being-black-in-china/277878/