About

Robin D. G. Kelley

Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History

Contact Information
E-mail: rdkelley@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-1679
Office: SOS 277

LINKS
Curriculum Vitae
 

Biographical Sketch
Robin D. G. Kelley is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is the author of the prize-winning books Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (University of North Carolina Press, 1990); Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (The Free Press, 1994); Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press, 1997), which was selected one of the top ten books of 1998 by the Village Voice; Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century, written collaboratively with Dana Frank and Howard Zinn (Beacon 2001); and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press, 2002). He also edited (with Earl Lewis), To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans (Oxford University Press, 2000), a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a History Book Club Selection. To Make Our World Anew was an outgrowth of an earlier collaboration with Lewis, the eleven volume Young Oxford History of African Americans (Oxford University Press, 1995-1998), of which he authored volume 10, titled Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970 (1996). Kelley also co-edited (with Sidney J. Lemelle) Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora (Verso, 1994). His biography of pianist/composer Thelonious Monk, titled Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, is due out in the fall of 2009 (Free Press). He is also completing Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2010), and a general survey of African American history co-authored with Tera Hunter and Earl Lewis to be published by Norton. Kelley’s essays have appeared in several anthologies and journals, including The Nation, Monthly Review, The Voice Literary Supplement, New York Times (Arts and Leisure), New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Color Lines, Code Magazine, Utne Reader, Lenox Avenue, African Studies Review, Black Music Research Journal, Callaloo, New Politics, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir, One World, Social Text, Metropolis, American Visions, Boston Review, Fashion Theory, American Historical Review, Journal of American History, New Labor Forum, Souls, Metropolis, and frieze: contemporary art and culture, to name a few.
 

Education
B.A. History, Cal State Long Beach, 1983
M.A. African History, UCLA, 1985
Ph.D. U.S. History, UCLA, 1987
 

Postdoctoral Training
Minority Postdoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1988-1989   
 

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

Tenure Track Appointments
Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, University of Southern California, 2006-  
William B. Ransford Professor of Cultural and Historical Studies, Columbia University, 2005-2007  
Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies, Columbia University, 2003-2007  
Professor of History and Africana Studies, New York University, 1994-2003  
Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Culture, University of Michigan, 1994-1995  
Associate Professor of History and African American Studies, University of Michigan, 1990-1994  
Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies, Emory University, 1988-1990  
 

Non-Tenure Track Appointments
Visiting Professor of African and African American History, Southeastern Massachusetts University, 1987-1988   
 

Visiting and Temporary Appointments
Acting Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University, 2005-2006   
Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Department of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, Fall 2005   
Visiting Scholar, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Spring 2005   
Chairperson, Department of History, New York University, 2002-2003   
Louis Armstrong Professor of Jazz Studies, Columbia University, 2001-2002   
Visiting Professor, African American Studies, Columbia University, Spring 1997   
 

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
My research topics have ranged widely, covering the history of black radical movements in the U.S., the African Diaspora, and Africa (notably South Africa); black intellectuals; music; visual culture; contemporary urban studies; poverty studies and ethnography; colonialism/imperialism; organized labor; constructions of race; Surrealism, Marxism, nationalism, among other things. More recently, my work has focused on culture and the politics of art, primarily with regard to the history of jazz and related musical forms. I am currently completing three book-length studies: a biography of pianist/composer Thelonious Monk, a small book about jazz and Modern Africa in the age of decolonization, and a general narrative of African American history in a global context (co-authored with Tera Hunter and Earl Lewis).
 

Research Keywords
African Diaspora African-American History Social Movements Radicalism Black Music/Jazz Urban Studies Black Intellectuals
 

Research Specialties
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1987) Professor of History and ASE: African diaspora, urban studies, working class radicalism, social movements, and cultural history with an emphasis on music.
 

Funded Research

Contracts and Grants Awarded
Misterioso: Search of Thelonious Monk (Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sci), Robin D. G. Kelley, $75,000, 2007-2008   
Thelonious Monk biography (Schomburg Scholars-in-Residence Fellows Program), Robin D. G. Kelley, $50,000, 2000-2001   
African American Life in the Jim Crow South (Ctr. for Multimedia Technology, NYU), Robin D. G. Kelley, $25,000, 1995-1996   
 

Affiliations with Research Centers, Labs, and Other Institutions
American Studies Program, University of Melbourne, Australia, Visiting Fellow
American Studies Program, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan, Visiting Scholar
Bogazaci University, Istanbul, Turkey, USIS Fellow
Brooklyn College, Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford Univ, Residential Fellow,http://www.casbs.org
Center for Jazz Studies, Columbia University, Louis Armstrong Chair, Distinguished Visiting Scholar,http://www.jazz.columbia.edu
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Fellow
Institute for the Humanities, University of Michigan, Fellow
Montgomery House, Dartmouth College, Visiting Fellow (twice)
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Residential Fellow,http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/scholars/index.html
 

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
"Canaan's Children: Black Ohio's Revolutionary Legacy", Race and Resistance, 1858 and 2008: Activists and Allies, Keynote Lecture, , Oberlin College, Invited, Fall 2008   
"Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa", A Common Wind: A Conference in Honor of Julius Scott, III, Lecture/Seminar, Paper, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Invited, Fall 2008   
"Looking Forward, Looking Back: Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America Ten Years Later", Who Claims the City?, Keynote Lecture, , Marquette University, Invited, Spring 2008   
"The African Invasion: Musical Encounters in the Age of Decolonization", Transnation: UCLA Annual Mellon Conference, Keynote Lecture, , UCLA, Invited, Spring 2008   
"Black and Tan Fantasies: Visualizing Race and Masculinity through the Dark Shades of Jazz", Moore Lecture Series on Black Masculinity, Keynote lecture, , University of Oregon, Invited, Spring 2007   
"Racializing Science: Reflections on Two Centuries", , Conference on Science, Technology and the Historical Influence of Race, Keynote lecture, Refereed , Drexel University, Invited, Spring 2007   
"Visualizing Race: Three Episodes", Eighth Annual American Studies Conference, keynote lecture, Refereed , Macalaster College, Program in American Studies, Invited, Spring 2007   
"Monk’s Musical Journey", In Celebration of William L. Dawson: An Exploration of African-American Music and Identity, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed , Emory University, Candler Library, Music Department, etc., Invited, Spring 2005   
"The Oppressed People of the Earth are the Majority", American Studies/Ethnic Studies, keynote lecture, Refereed , Williams College, American Studies Program, Invited, Spring 2005   
"Liberating Memories: Social Movements and the Power of History", When History Wakes’: Cultural and Ecological Memory, Keynote lecture, Refereed , Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, Invited, Fall 2004   
"Life After Capitalism", Life After Capitalism, Talk/Oral Presentation, , CUNY Grad Center, Invited, Fall 2004   
"Constructing the Past, Creating the Future: The Legacy of Nell Irvin Painter", Constructing the Past, Creating the Future: The Legacy of Nell Irvin Painter, Keynote lecture, Refereed , Princeton University, Department of History, Invited, Spring 2004   
"Labor Against Empire, at Home and Abroad", Race and Labor Matters, Keynote lecture, Refereed , CUNY Grad Center, Invited, Fall 2003   
""Say It": Towards a Politics of Love and the Marvelous", "Themes of Love and Liberation in the History and Politics of Resistance Movements," Conference in H, Talk/Oral Presentation, Refereed , NYU Law School, Invited, Fall 2002   
 

Other Presentations
"Before Obama: How Black Folk Saved U. S. Democracy", Carl Ubbelohde Lecture, Case Western Reserve University, Fall 2008   
"Confronting Obama: A Primer on Race and Empire for the Next U. S. President", Eqbal Ahmad Memorial Lecture, Hampshire College, Fall 2008   
"Confronting Obama: A Primer on Race and Empire for the Next U. S. President", Distinguished Lecture Series, Cal State Northridge, Fall 2008   
"Desegregation in National Context", Teachers Forum on Desegregating Pasadena Schools, Pasadena Unified School District, Pasadena Historical Society, Fall 2008   
"Reconstruction of Power: Through Critical Education for Equity and Justice for All", Urban Forum,, School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Fall 2008   
"Defying the Form: Thelonious Monk Meets Frank London Brown", Lecture Series: Modernism and the Black Metropolis, Northwestern University, Spring 2008   
"Katrina and the Presidential Campaign", Distinguished Lecture, University of Miami, Spring 2008   
"Race and Terror in the Work of Hank Willis Thomas", Guest Lecture -- Parkside Senior Commons, Parkside Senior Commons, USC, Spring 2008   
"The ‘Un’ Years: Thelonious Monk in the 1950s", Lecture/Performance Series on Monk, Duke University, Fall 2007   
"Thelonious Monk: Life and Times of an American Original", Talk, L. A. Humanities Institute, USC, Fall 2007   
"’Jazz and Freedom Go Hand in Hand!’: Thelonious Monk Plays the ‘60s", Distinguished Lecture, Reed College, Spring 2007   
"A Joyful Noise: Radical Spirituality and Modern Jazz", Distinguished Lecture Series, Lewis and Clark College, Spring 2007   
"Another Reconstruction?: Reparations in the Wake of Katrina", Ralph Bunche Memorial Lecture, UCLA, Spring 2007   
"Exploiting Jazz Musicians", Distinguished Lecture Series - Theme: Labor, Humanities Institute, University of Texas, Austin, Spring 2007   
"Histories of Black Popular Culture", Distinguished Lecture Series, Lyceum Committee, Johnson C. Smith University, Spring 2007   
"Jazz Sahara: The Music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik", Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Washington University in St. Louis, Spring 2007   
"The Education of Thelonious Monk", Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Washington University in St. Louis, Spring 2007   
"The Pursuit of Happyness: Notes on Success Narratives and Racial Violence", Lecture Series on Race, Sarah Lawrence College, Spring 2007   
"’Africa Speaks, America Answers’: The Drum Wars of Guy Warren,"", Provost Lecture Series, SUNY Binghamton, Fall 2006   
""The Tree is Known by It’s Fruit": Leadership and Activism in the 21st Century", Student Symposium/Lecture, University of Arizona, Spring 2006   
"’Africa Speaks, America Answers’: The Drum Wars of Guy Warren", Shirley Kennedy Memorial Lecture, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Spring 2006   
"Another Reconstruction: Debating Reparations and Race in Post-Katrina America", A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture, University of Arizona, Spring 2006   
"The Education of Thelonious Monk", Second Annual African American History Month Lecture, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Spring 2006   
"Young Monk", Faculty Research Forum, Mt. Holyoke College, Spring 2006   
""’A Joyful Noise’: Modern Jazz and Spirituality", Invited lecture, American Studies Center of the University of the Ryukyus, , Okinawa, Japan, Fall 2005   
"’We Threaten the World’: African Americans and U.S. Empire", invited lecture, American Studies Center of the University of the Ryukyus, , Okinawa, Japan, Fall 2005   
"Monk’s Dance", Philosophy on Stage - Music and text performance/collaboration with Patrick Pulsinger, Ovalhalle Museumsquartier, Vienna, Austria, Fall 2005   
"The Education of Thelonious Monk", Addison Gayle Memorial Lecture, Baruch College, Fall 2005   
""Teaching to Change the World", Keynote address, Center for Urban Education, Long Island University, Spring 2005   
"The Education of Thelonious Monk", Russell B. Nye Lecture, Michigan State University, Spring 2005   
"When the Spirit Returns: Jazz and Modern Africa", Ena H. Thompson Lectures [3 lectures], Pomona College, Spring 2004   
"’Uhuru Afrika’: Spiritual Strivings in the Age of Decolonization", Nathan Huggins Lectures, Department of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, Fall 2003   
"Drum Wars: ‘Africa Speaks, America Answers", Nathan Huggins Lectures, Department of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, Fall 2003   
"Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement", Walker Ames Lecture, University of Washington, Tacoma, Fall 2003   
"Marabi Modernists: Swinging Under Apartheid", Nathan Huggins Lectures, Department of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University, Fall 2003   
"Of Jazz and Freedom", W. E. B. DuBois Distinguished Lecture, Miami University of Ohio, Fall 2003   
"TOO MANY TO LIST: PLEASE SEE C.V.", Additional papers, 09/01/1989-09/01/2003  
 

Publications

Book
Kelley, Robin D. G. and Franklin Rosemont (Ed.). (2008). Surrealism -- Black, Brown and Beige: Writings and Images from Africa and the African Diaspora. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2007). Inventing the Ghetto: Representing America’s Urban Crisis, translation of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!. (Trans. Kosuzu Abe and Katsuyuki Murata, Ed.). Tokyo: Hanmoto Publishers.
Kelley, Robin D. G. and Earl Lewis (Ed.). (2004). To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans, Vols. 1 and 2. (Vol. I and II, New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2004). Transnational Black Studies: A Special Issue of Radical History Review. (Co-edited with Lisa Brock and Karen Sotiropolous., Ed.). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2002). Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press.
Kelley, R. D., Zinn, H., Frank, D. (2001). Three Strikes: The Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century. Boston: Beacon Press.
Kelley, Robin D. G. and Earl Lewis (Ed.). (2000). To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (1997). Into the Fire: African Americans Since 1970. (Vol. 10, (Robin D. G. Kelley and Earl Lewis, Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (1997). We Changed the World: African Americans, 1945-1970. (Vol. 9, (Robin D. G. Kelley and Earl Lewis, Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (1997). Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America. Boston: Beacon Press.
Kelley, Robin D. G. and Sidney J. Lemelle (Ed.). (1995). Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African Diaspora. London: Verso Books.
Kelley, R. D. (1994). Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. New York: The Free Press.
Kelley, R. D. (1990). Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
 

Book Chapter
Kelley, R. D. (2008). Burning Symbols: The Work of Art in the Age of Tyrannical (Re)Production, in Hank Willis Thomas: Pitch Blackness. pp. 102-109.
Bossewitch, J., Frankfurt, J., Kelley, R. D., Sherman, A. (2007). "Wiki Justice, Social Ergonomics, And Ethical Collaborations," in The Wild, Wild Wiki: Unsettling the Frontiers of Cyberspace, eds., Matt Barton and Robert Cummings. Ann Arbor, MI: University of MIchigan Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2007). "’A Day of Reckoning’: Dreams of Reparations," in Redress for Historical Injustices in the United States, eds. Michael T. Martin and Marilyn Yaquinto. pp. 203-221. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2007). Disappearing Acts: Harlem in Transition," in The Suburbanization of New York: Is the World’s Greatest City Becoming Just Another Town?, eds. Jerilou Hammett and Kingsley Hammett. pp. 63-74. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
 

Journal Article
Kelley, R. D. (2006). ’Freedom is Living’: LisaGay Hamilton’s Radical Imagination. Transforming Anthropology. Vol. 14 (1), pp. 2-9.
 

Magazine/Trade Publication
Kelley, R. D. U. S. News and World Report.
Kelley, R. D. Counterpunch.
Kelley, R. D., Ellis, T. The Root.
 

Manuscript
Kelley, R. D. (2008). Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. The Free Press.
Kelley, R. D. Speaking in Tongues: Jazz and Modern Africa. Harvard University Press.
 

Other
Kelley, R. D., Holtzman, B. (2008). An Interview with Robin D. G. Kelley by Benjamin Holtzman. In the Middle of a Whirlwind, reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.
Kelley, R. D. (2008). Wicked Theory/Naked Practice: A Fred Ho Reader. University of Minnesota Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2007). "Looking Forward, Looking Back . . . Ten Years Later," new Introduction to 2nd edition of Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America. Beacon Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2007). Ai-jen Poo, et. al., Labor of Love: A Statistical, Legal, and Social Report on the Demographics and Working Conditions of New York City’s Hidden Domestic Work Industry. Domestic Workers United.
Kelley, R. D. (2006). Joao H. Costa Vargas, Catching Hell in the City of Angels: Life and Meanings of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles. University of Minnesota Press.
Kelley, R. D. (2006). Dipannita Basu and Sidney Lemelle, eds., The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture. Pluto Press.
 
 

New Courses Developed
Black Movements in the U.S., American Studies and Ethnicity, In this course, we examine historical and contemporary black movements for freedom, justice, equality, autonomy and self-determination. Beginning with the struggles of Africans to destroy or escape from the system of slavery, we consider a wide range of movements, including labor, civil rights, radical feminism, socialism and communism, reparations, Black Nationalism, and hip hop as a political movement. We will explore, among other things, how movements were formed and sustained; the social and historical contexts for their emergence and demise; the impact they might have had on power, on participants in the movement, on the community at large, and on a people’s vision of a liberated future., 2007-2008   
Jazz and the Political Imagination, American Studies and Ethnicity, How has the music we call "jazz" come to symbolize so many different political tendencies--freedom and democratic values, a threat to order and civil society, the possibility of integration and racial harmony, Black liberation and nationalism, conservatism, surrealism, socialism, etc., throughout the 20th century? What is it about jazz that enables people to read their political aspirations and hopes in what is primarily instrumental, improvised music? The purpose of this course is to explore the history of ideas about jazz, specifically how writers, activists, movements, and musicians themselves understood the "politics" of jazz. We are not suggesting that there is a discrete, self-evident politics intrinsic to the music; rather, this course explores political imaginations—here and abroad. In particular, we are interested in jazz and the question of freedom—social freedom, political freedom, cultural and artistic freedom., 2007-2008   
 

Teaching Innovations and Multimedia Teaching
Students creating a "wiki" website for social movements in Los Angeles, Fall 2007   
 

Honors and Awards
Endowed Professorship, Harmsworth Professor of American History, Oxford University, 2009-2010   
Nominated - Jazz Journalist Association Award, 2005-2006   
Endowed Professorship, William B. Ransford Professor of Cultural and Historical Studies, Fall 2005   
Distinguished Alumni, Cal State Long Beach, Spring 2003   
Montgomery Fellow, 6/1/2002-8/30/2002  
Golden Dozens Teaching Prize, NYU, 1998-1999   
Outstanding Book in Human Rights, Gustavus Myers Center, 1998-1999   
Society of American Historians, 1996-1997   
ABC CLIO Award [Best Scholarly Article that advances the field of U.S. History], , 1995-1996   
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Recipient, 1994-1995   
Outstanding Book Award, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, 1994-1995   
Elliot Rudwick Prize, Organization of American Historians, 1991-1992   
Francis Butler Simkins Prize, Southern Historical Association, 1991-1992   
Outstanding book on Human Rights, Gustavus Myers Center , 1990-1991   
 

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
Associate Director, Center for Diversity & Democracy, 2008-  
 

Review Panels
Harvard University, Dept. of African and African-American Studies, External Review Committe, Fall 2005   
Open Society Institute, Community Fellowships Evaluations Committee, 2004-2005  
International Center for Advanced Study, NYU, Fellowships Review Committee, 1999-2000   
Rockefeller Foundation Grants in the Humanities, Review Board, Grants in the Humanities, 1995-1999  
 

Service to the Profession

Review Panels
Harvard University, Dept. of African and African-American Studies, External Review Committe, Fall 2005   
Open Society Institute, Community Fellowships Evaluations Committee, 2004-2005  
International Center for Advanced Study, NYU, Fellowships Review Committee, 1999-2000   
Rockefeller Foundation Grants in the Humanities, Review Board, Grants in the Humanities, 1995-1999  
 
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