The Future of Hip Hop Studies: A Symposium

In 2023, publications and institutions across the globe celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. While many lauded the trajectory of the music—from back-to-school jams in the Bronx to a multibillion dollar industry—less attention was paid to where Hip Hop is headed now. Likewise, in academia, Hip Hop Studies has flourished, and we are now at the 30th anniversary of Tricia Rose’s Black Noise, which inaugurated it as a field for academic inquiry. And it is also necessary to look forward in that endeavor.

The Department of African & African American Studies and the Hiphop Archive & Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research are a small group of leading thinkers in the field for a one-day symposium about the future of Hip Hop Studies. Four scholars will present a lecture on their own work and how it fits into new directions and critical concerns in the study of Hip Hop as a branch of popular music studies and Black popular culture studies. To conclude, Tricia Rose will deliver a “50 Year Reflection” on the state of the field of which she is a foundational figure.

PARTICIPANTS

David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences and Professor of Anthropology

Associate Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies

Faculty Co-Director of the UCLA Hip Hop Initiative

Co-editor (with Jeff Chang), University of California Press Hip Hop Studies Book Series

University of California-Los Angeles

Professor of English & African American Studies

Founding Director, Laboratory for Race and Popular Culture (RAP Lab)

University of California-Los Angeles

Associate Professor of English and African Diaspora Studies

Faculty Editor, Southern Cultures Journal

Kennesaw State University

James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies; Chair, Department of African & African American Studies; Professor, English; Professor, Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

Director, Center for Arts, Digital Culture & Entrepreneurship (CADCE)

Duke University

Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies

Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives

Director, The Systemic Cacism Project at the John Nicolas Center for Advanced Study

Brown University

Host or Publisher Hutchins Center for African & African American Research