Linda Marinda Heywood (born 1945) is an American historian and professor of African American studies and history at Boston University. Heywood has a BA from Brooklyn College and a PhD from Columbia University. In 2008, she shared the Herskovits Prize for her book (co-authored with her husband John Thornton) Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.