[2][3][4] She was born in Havana, Cuba, migrated to the United States in 1963, and grew up in West New York, New Jersey.
[5] Ferrer holds an AB degree in English from Vassar College, 1984, an MA degree in history from University of Texas at Austin, 1988, and a PhD in history from the University of Michigan, 1995.
[6] She is currently a Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American Studies at New York University.
[7] She won the 2015 Frederick Douglass Prize for her book Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution.
[8][9] The book also won the Friedrich Katz, Wesley Logan, and James A. Rawley prizes from the American Historical Association and the Haiti Illumination Prize from the Haitian Studies Association.