embassy events 2007 

Ethnomusicologist Miles White Lectures on Music and Race Issues in Warsaw

3 December 2007

Dr Miles White lecturing in American Studies Center (more photos)

Dr Miles White, an ethnomusicologist and music journalist who spent his early musical years traveling the "chitlin' circuit" as a trumpet player in R&B funk bands in the South, visited Poland December 4-6 for lectures on the role of “gangsta” imagery in rap music.  Dr. White is currently a lecturer at Charles University in Prague. As a part of the Embassy’s America Presents Program, Miles White delivered a presentation “From Hip-hop to Hardcore: Race, Representation and the New Culture of Masculinity” in Warsaw University’s American Studies Center, Al. Niepodleglosci 22, on December 6 at 4:00 PM. The subject matter of the lecture was an academic analysis of the roots and rise of the gang-related and violent imagery used by the performers who have come to dominate the rap music industry with lyrics filled with vulgar language, drug use, and violence against women.  Ambassador Victor Ashe welcomed Dr. White to Warsaw in a meeting at the Embassy on December 5.  Dr. White also delivered his lecture to Warsaw University Ph.D. students participating in the conference on December 4 and in Warsaw School of Social Psychology on December 5.

Dr. White also worked as a music journalist in Washington, D.C.; ran a jazz band in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and conducted ethnographic field research on marimba music in northern coastal Ecuador in 1994.  He received an M.A. in Music in 1996 from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he taught courses in American Popular Music, African-American Music, and World Music Cultures. In his numerous paper presentations, publications and research experience he takes up African American music and cultural expression, American popular music and culture, jazz, urban culture and the issues of race and identity.  Dr. White is affiliated with the Society of Ethnomusicology, American Studies Association and International Association for the Study of Popular Music.