Carla Martin (anthropologist)

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]