Kwame Harrison
Associate Professor
Joined Virginia Tech: 2002
| Bachelor's (Anthropology) | University of Massachusetts at Amherst |
| Master's (Anthropology) | Syracuse University |
| Doctorate (Anthropology) | Syracuse University |
TEACHING INTERESTS:
Sociology of Popular Music
Qualitative Research Methods
Black Aesthetics
Introduction to Social Anthropology
Introduction to African American Studies
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Filipino-American Hip Hop
Black Skiing
Politics of Ethnography
Hip Hop Historiography
Racial Passing
Links between early 20th Century Black Music and Business
SELECTED AWARDS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Associate Editor, Journal of Popular Music Studies 2009-
Diversity Award (co-recipient with Dr. April Few), College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Virginia Tech 2008
Virginia Tech Scholar of the Week (week of March 3rd) 2008
Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award, Department of Sociology, Virginia Tech 2007
Doctoral Prize, Syracuse University Graduate School 2004
Outstanding Dissertation Award, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 2004
Women and Minority Artists Lecture Series Grant (w/ Deb Sims), VPI & SU, 2003
ABD Fellow, VPI & SU, 2002-3
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS:
Book
Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification (Philadelphia PA: Temple University Press, 2009).
Articles, Book Chapters, and Essays
“Reading Billboard 1979-1989: Exploring Rap Music’s Emergence through the Music Industry’s Most Influential Trade Publication.” Co-Authored with Craig E. Arthur. Popular Music and Society 34, no. 3 (2011): 309-327.
“‘We’re Talking About Practice(-Based Research)’: Serious Play and Serious Performance in the Practice of Popular Music Ethnography.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 23, no. 2 (2011): 221-228.
“Sociology and Cultural Studies.” Pp. 557-568 in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music. Edited by Theodore Gracyk and Andrew Kania. (Routledge, 2011).
“Surviving Sounds and Musicological Futures: Post-Edisonian Perception, Meaning and Legacy.” [V]LAND Magazine 1 (2011): 30-37.
“Multiracial Youth Scenes and the Dynamics of Race: New Approaches to Racialization within the Bay Area Hip Hop Underground.” Pp. 201-219 in Twenty-First Century Colorlines: Multiracial Change in Contemporary America. Edited by Andrew Grant-Thomas and Gary Orfield (Temple University Press, 2009).
“Racial Authenticity in Rap Music and Hip Hop”Sociology Compass 2, no. 6 (2008): 1783-1800.
“'Cheaper than a CD, Plus We Really Mean It': Bay Area Underground Hip Hop Tapes as Subcultural Artefacts.” Popular Music 25, no. 2 (2006): 283-301.