Profile. |
I am an Associate Professor of Popular Culture in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies and Director of the School at Bowling Green State University.
My teaching and research focus on Black popular cultural production including African American music, stage plays, and representations of African Americans in American postwar and contemporary comic art and television. I also examine the gender power relations in portrayals and self-representations of Black women and Black girls in television, religion, and music. I edited “This Is How We Flow”: Rhythm in Black Cultures (1999), co-edited Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction (2006), and published articles and book chapters on different aspects of 20th and 21st century African American popular culture. In addition, I edited the Religions journal special issue, “Religions in African American Popular Culture” (2019) and edited the Africology and Popular Culture Studies Journal special issue, “Black Popular Culture” (2020). I am currently working on a project related to the seventies television sitcom series Good Times. My recent undergraduate courses include Black-Cast Situation Comedy, Black Popular Music, and Black Women, American Television, and In/Visibility, and my recent graduate course is Black Women, Popular Culture, and Respectability. During Spring Semester 2025, I am teaching an undergraduate course, Black Popular Culture. |
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