Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of American Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
I am a historian interested in the intersection of race, capitalism, and popular culture. I grew up in Santa Cruz, California, received my BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and my PhD in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I will begin a tenure track Assistant Professor position in Fall 2025.
My book project, Gone Country: How Nashville Transformed a Music Genre into a Lifestyle Brand (under contract with UNC Press), is a history of the country music business in the post-1968 era. I argue country music’s commercial triumphs during this period were built on anti-Blackness, and its positioning as antithetical to youth culture—which often functions as a synonym for subversive politics and/or Black culture, especially in reference to popular music. I consult music industry archives and artist and fan testimonials to show how major figures in the Nashville-based country music business marketed the image of a purely white subculture while overlooking Black and Latino country artists and fans. Focusing on the period between the late 1960s and 9/11, this book shows how country music operated not just as a type of music, but as a tool of white grievance alongside the early rise of country’s first Black star, Charley Pride, during the Reagan years, and in a post-Rodney King America.
My writing has appeared in California History, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. I am a former postdoctoral fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race & Difference at Emory University, Diversity Dissertation Fellow at Middle Tennessee State University, and Doris G. Quinn Foundation Fellow.
Check out my recent appearance on GMA3 here.
I'm excited to be guest editing an issue of Southern Cultures on "Country Music's Mythology." Check out the CFP here.
Find my Google Scholar Profile here.
