Curriculum Vita

CURRENT PROJECT:  I am currently working on a series of publications coming out of an ethnographic research project on independent hip hop in the San Francisco Bay Area. These primarily focus on issues on identity, musical authenticity, and the production of culture.

Joined Virginia Tech: 2002

EDUCATION:

TEACHING INTERESTS:

Cultural Sociology
Anthropology
Africana Studies
Music & Society 

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Music Scenes
The Production of Culture
The Politics of Identity
Globalization
Qualitative Research Methods and Ethnographic Representations

SELECTED AWARDS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS:

“'Cheaper than a CD, Plus We Really Mean It': Bay Area Underground Hip Hop Tapes as Subcultural Artefacts.” Popular Music. Volume 25, Issue 2. (2006)

"Identity, Local Music Scenes, and Translocal Reputation: The Bay Area as Underground Hip Hop Mecca." Presented at the Popular Culture in the Local Conference (sponsored by Popular Culture Niagara), Brock Univsersity, St. Catharines, ON. (2006)

"Containing Black Music: The Appropriation and Essentialization of Hip Hop."  Invited lecture sponsored by the Gender Studies Department at Whitman College. (2005)

"‘Rockin Off-Beat with a Smile’: Innovation, Experimentalism, and Identity in West Coast Underground Hip Hop."  Presented at the Southern Sociological Society’s 68th Annual Meetings in Charlotte, NC. (2005)

"The Production of Localized Subcultures: Genre-Fluidity Among Folk Musicians."  Presented at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music – U.S. Meetings in Charlottesville, VA. (2004)

"Concerned about a Multiracial Hip Hop Nation: Applying a Black Studies Paradigm to Issues of Cultural Appropriation."  Presented at the African Heritage Studies Association Annual Meetings in Roanoke, VA. (2004)

"Hip Hop as Local Color: What Those Streets and These Hills Have in Common." Presented as part of the Armory Gallery (Blacksburg Virginia) Summer Art Series Hip Hop in the Southwest Hills. (2004)

"Hip Hop Culture and Mainstream America: Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Diffusion?"  Invited Lecture sponsored by the Roanoke College Office of Multicultural Affairs and Black Student Alliance. (2004)

"Real Niggaz, Cracker Rap, and Filipinos with Perms: The Situational Racialization of Identities within a ‘Colorblind’ Hip Hop World." Presented at the Harvard Civil Rights Project’s Color Lines Conference: Segregation and Integration in America’s Present and Future. (2003)

“Authenticity and Hip Hop: Is It Essential To Be Black?” In Readings in Sociology. Michael Hughes and John Ryan (eds.) McGraw-Hill. (2003)

“Got Tapes?”: The Transmission and Reception of Independent Hip Hop Via Audiocassettes. Presented at the American Anthropological Association’s 101st Annual Conference in New Orleans. (2002)