Peter Mark is a cultural historian of West Africa, currently teaching at Wesleyan University, who has authored five books on the topics of  pre-colonial history, art history, and 16th through 19th century European-African interaction. Mark's early research has focused on history and masking traditions of the Casamance region of Senegal,  while his more recent work centers on Portuguese Jewish (Sephardic) merchants in 17th century Senegambia. Also among his research interest is the history, provenance, and iconography of the 16th-17th century Luso-African ivories from Upper Guinea. 

Mark studied art history and history at Harvard and Yale University,  and  worked as a historical ethnographer at the Frobenius-Institut, prior to his appointment at Wesleyan University.  Mark has also served as a visiting scholar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Paris), in addition to completing research fellowships as Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellow (2006) at Goethe-University, Frankfurt-am-Main and as a Senior Fellow in Berlin at Re:work (Humboldt-Universitaet).

Mark is the Editor (2016) of The Journal of Mande Studies" and is the Director of a joint Portuguese-Brazilian research project studying the Luso-African ivories. 

Sources:

"Faculty: Mark Peter."  Wesleyan University. http://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/pmark/profile.html.