Seth Markle joined Trinity's Department of History and International Studies Program in 2009. He earned his B.A with honors from Tufts University (African Studies & English) in 2000. In 2011, he received his Ph.D. in History from New York University. Markle is the author of A Motorcycle on Hell Run: Tanzania, Black Power and the Uncertain Future of Pan-Africanism, 1964-1974 (Michigan State University Press, 2017). He currently is working on a series of research projects that analyze the transnational histories of hip hop music and culture in Africa and the United States.

Markle's courses on Africa and the African Diaspora are taught through an interdisciplinary lens, emphasizing critical interrogations of personal memoirs, oral histories, film, fiction, photography and music. In an effort to challenge the prevailing negative stereotypes and myths still associated with the peoples and cultures of the African continent, Markle seeks to impress upon his students the multi-layered dimensions of African agency and Africa's historical contributions to the making of the modern world. 

Professor Markle is also the Director of the International Studies, Co-Director of the Faculty Advisory Council for Global Learning, a member of the Faculty Advisory Board in Human Rights Studies, and the Faculty Advisor to Trinity's annual International Hip Hop Festival. 

•  A Motorcycle on Hell Run: Tanzania, Black Power and the Uncertain Future of Pan-Africanism, 1964-1974. Michigan State University Press, 2017.

• “Spray It Loud:  Hip Hop Graffiti Culture and Politics in Dar es Salaam, 2003-2018,” Scratched, Scrawled, Sprayed: Towards a Cross Cultural Understanding edited by Ondrej Skrabal, Leah Marcia, Ann Lauren Osthof, and Malena Ratzke, 77-108, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023.
• “To Put Your Signature: Tanzania’s Graffiti Movement.” In The Companion to Public History, edited by David M. Dean. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Press, 2018.
• “The DJ as Archaeologist: Madlib’s Beat Konducta in Africa and the Politics of Memory.” In Politics of the African Anticolonial Archive, edited by Shiera Malik and Isaac Kamola, 207-230. Rowan & Littlefield, 2017.
• “The Sixth Pan African Congress, 1974.” In Peoples Movement Assembly Organizing Handbook, edited by Stephanie Guillord, 15-16. Atlanta: Project South, 2017.
  

• “From the PJs to Bushnell Park: Origins Stories from the Hartford Hip Hop Digital Collection,” co-presenter, Global Hip Hop Association for Advancement and Education, February 2022. (Virtual)
• “Trinity International Hip Hop Festival: Student Organizing and the Praxis and Impact of Cultural Appreciation,” presenter, Global Hip Hop Association for Advancement and Education, February 2021. (Virtual)
• “On the Right Side of World Revolution: Local Movements and Global Visions,” roundtable panelist, 2020 Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, Tufts University, January 2020.
• “‘The Fest’: Exploring Hip Hop Models of Cultural Responsibility on College Campuses.” Show and Prove Conference, University of California, Riverside, CA, December 2018.
• “Black Reconstruction in Our Times,” panelist, Annual Howard Zinn Book Fair, San Francisco College, San Francisco, CA, November 2017.
  

• “The Making and Meaning of the Hartford Hip Hop Digital Collection,” AMST 425/825: Curating Conversations in the Public Humanities, American Studies Graduate Program, Trinity College, March 2022.
• “Hip Hop Travels: Reflections on Tanzanian Urban Youth Culture,” Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, April 2019.
• “Respect the Art Form: The Evolution of Tanzanian Hip Hop,” Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, March 2019.
• “Pan-Africanism: Then and Now.” The Walter Rodney Foundation, Atlanta, GA, March 2018.
• “Tanzania and the Black Power Movement.” University Sin Fronteras/Project South, Atlanta, GA, March 2018.

• Advisor of the Year, Campus Life Leadership and Greek Awards, Trinity College, 2019.
• Award of Merit, Hip Hop Digital Stories, CT League of Historians, April 2019.
• Distinguished Service Award, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Trinity College, 2017.
• Arthur H. Hughes Award for Teaching Achievement, 2012.
• Erskine A. Peters Dissertation Writing Fellowship, 2008.
• Henry Mitchell MacCracken Fellowship, 2002-2007.
• Sattwa-Meriwheather Summer Doctoral Research Grant, 2003 & 2004.