Saidiya Hartman (born 1961) is an American historian, literary scholar, and cultural critic whose work has transformed the study of slavery, the African diaspora, race, gender, and the afterlives of slavery. Renowned for blending rigorous historical research with literary narrative, she has pioneered innovative approaches to recovering the lives of people marginalized or omitted from the historical record. Her acclaimed book *Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments* reconstructs the lives of young Black women in the early twentieth century, offering a powerful reimagining of freedom, resistance, and everyday life while reshaping contemporary historical writing.
