She holds a BA from Stanford University, California and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Cussen is the editor of Huellas de Africa en América, Perspectivas para Chile (2009) and the author of articles in the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Colonial Latin American Historical Review. Her work has appeared in volumes edited in Peru, Chile, Italy and Argentina. She has been awarded fellowships and grants by the Du Bois Institute at Harvard University, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Chilean government's Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Fondecyt).