Shana Redmond, professor of musicology in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, has been elected president of the American Studies Association through June 2024. The association is made up of researchers, teachers, students, writers, curators, community organizers and activists from around the world who are dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of U.S. culture and history in a global context.
The American Studies Association’s American Quarterly publishes scholarship that examines the sociopolitical, economic and cultural formations of the United States and the Americas. The association also organizes an annual international meeting and many regional events; provides resources to researchers, students and teachers; and collaborates with museums, public institutions and local communities in order to advance and participate in public discussions relevant to the field.
Redmond, who is affiliated with the global jazz studies interdepartmental program, is an interdisciplinary scholar of music, race and politics. Prior to receiving her doctorate in African American studies and American studies from Yale University, Redmond studied music and African American studies at Macalester College, where she trained as a vocalist. Throughout her education and career, music has been at the center of her thinking — as subject, agent and method — and activates her research and teaching interests in racial formation, political cultures, nationalism, labor and decolonization. Her focus has been to understand the ways in which music is used as a strategy within the liberation politics and social movements of the African world.
