August 2008

Imani Kai Johnson

University of Southern CaliforniaDepartment of American Studies & Ethnicity

3470 Trousdale Pkwy WPH 300 Los Angeles, CA 90089

Mobile 917.365.1075; Fax 866.503.9255

Johnson, p. 1

Education

Fall 2003-present / PhDCandidateUniversity of Southern California, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Dissertation Title: “Take Me Higher: Blackness, Kinesthetic Knowledge, and Global Connection in B-Boying Cyphers”
Committee: Dorinne Kondo, Frederick Moten, Ruth Gilmore, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, Curtis Marez
Fall 2000-Summer 2002 / MA Candidate New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study Master’s of Arts with a concentration in African-American and Afro-Caribbean Literature and History
Masters Thesis Title:“Carnival Lineage: ‘The Afro-American Carnivalesque from Pinkster to Hip Hop”
Committee: Kamau Brathwaite, Clyde Taylor, Sharon Friedman
Fall 1994-Fall 1998 / University of California at Berkeley BA in English and Economicswith a minor in African-American Studies

Research Areas

African American Studies; African Diaspora; Cultural Anthropology; Performance Studies; Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Popular Culture and Dance

Publications

Johnson, Imani Kai. Review of Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar’sHip Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2007) for H-Amstdy (July 2008).URL:

Johnson, Imani Kai. “Canboulay” for ed. Anand Prahlad’s Encyclopedia of African American Folklore: Three Volumes, Missouri: Evergreen Press, 2005.

Johnson, Imani Kai. “Tricia Rose” for ed. Anand Prahlad’s Encyclopedia of African American Folklore: Three Volumes, Missouri: Evergreen Press, 2005.

Johnson, Imani Kai. “People of Color Unite Against Racial Scapegoating,” Washington Square News, Brownstone Supplement 3.1: 3 (2 Oct. 2001)

Grants & Achievements

Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship Dissertation Award 2008-2009

Irvine Foundation Graduate Fellowship August 2003-May 2008

Certificate in Experimental Critical Theory, “Present Tense Empires, Race, Bio-Politics” University of California at Irvine, August 2005

University of Southern California Urban and Global Summer Fellowship Initiative 2005

Scholar-in-Residence,City University of New York, HunterCollegeCenter for Puerto Rican Studies Grant for research on early representations of Hip Hop in Puerto Rican community and youth activist archives,June-August 2005

Participant in University of California,Berkeley Advanced Regional Oral History Summer Institute2004

University of Southern California Center for Feminist Research Travel Grant for research on the Fiesta de Vejigante in Loíza Aldea, Puerto RicoJuly 2004

New YorkUniversityCenter for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Summer Research Grant for Study in the Non-Spanish Speaking Caribbean for research on Carnival in TrinidadJuly 2001

Research Experience

Primary Research

May 2006
-August 2007 / Conducted archival research at the SchomburgCenter for Research in Black Culture and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dance Holdings. Examined representations of Hip Hop culture in film, photography, dance journals, newspapers, and niche-market publications geared towards Black youth from 1974-1985. Collected oral histories of Hip Hop dancers in the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Ft.Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Thun, London, and Braunschweig.

Research Assistantships

Summer 2008 / Researched for Professor Dorinne Kondo in the University of Southern California Department of Anthropology. Assisted in compiling bibliographies on artisanal epistemology, Film Studies, and Theatre Studies. Compiled bibliographic sources on playwrights Anna Deavere Smith and David Henry Hwang, and theatre troupe Culture Clash. Transcribed interview with Public Theatre Director Oskar Eustis.
Spring 2005 / Researched for Professor Lanita Jacobs-Huey in the University of Southern California Department of Anthropology. Assisted in data analysis, coding, and preliminary research on themes pertinent to the language of “truth” and racial authenticity by African American stand-up humor, African American women’s linguistic and cultural hair practices, and African American families raising child survivors of brain trauma.Digitized footage from fieldwork for From the Kitchen to the Parlor.
Fall 2004 / Researched for Professor Roberto Lint-Sagarena in the University of Southern California Department of Religious Study. Assisted in preliminary research on the “All Mexico” Movement and representations of crossroads in African diasporic religious practices. Researched at the Getty Conservation Institute for photographic representations of the Mexican Centennial Fiesta between the 1910s and the 1920s.
August 2002-April 2003 / Researched for Anthropologist, Ethnomusicologist, and Scholar-in-Residence Kenneth Bilby at the New YorkPublicLibrarySchomburgCenterfor Research in Black Culture. Conducted archival research, making use of the extensive Rare Books and Manuscripts Division at both the Schomburg and at the New York Humanities and Social Sciences Library in research on slave-era and colonial representations ofAfrican-derived, Anglo- and Francophone Caribbean healing and faith-based practices.

Teaching Experience

Adjunct/Lecturer Positions

Spring 2007 / African Caribbean Literature: Centering the Caribbean, CityUniversity of New York Hunter College Department of African and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. Course of 40-50 students focused onliterary and theoretical representations of the Caribbean with a focus on themes of nationalism, class, race, gender, sexual politics, ancestral roots, and imaginings of Africa.
Summer 2004 / African American Literature: Challenging The Black Experience, CityUniversity of New York Hunter College Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. Course of 55 students disruptingnotions of African Americans as a cultural monolith.Focused on visual, musical, and literary narratives that open up the possibilities of black lives.
Fall 2003 / African American Literature, CityUniversity of New York Hunter College Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. Course of 55 students exploring the church, class and color, legacies of slavery, and gender politics. Included texts by Caribbean American writers.
Fall 2002 / Afro-Caribbean Literature, CityUniversity of New York Hunter College Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. Literature course of 40-50 students for non-majors focused on themes immigrant and exile, class and color, colonialism and imperialism, and gender politics.
Fall 2002 / College Writing, Long IslandUniversityBrooklyn Campus, English and Writing Program. Writing intensive introductory course of 15 first year students, with a focus on critical reading and argumentative writing skills. Focused on drafts and revisions that accumulated into a final portfolio.
Spring 2003 / Non-Western Literature, Long IslandUniversityBrooklyn Campus, English and Writing Program. Upper division English course. Class of 35 students. Fulfilled requirement for Writing and Literature. Focused on definitions and literary representations of colonialism in pan-Caribbean texts.
Spring 2003 / African American Literature,St. Joseph's College,School of Adult and Professional Education. Elective Saturday seminar of 8 students focused on major themes in African American Literature.

Teaching Assistantships

Spring 2008 / Deviant Behavior for Professor Karen Sternheimer, University of Southern California Department of Sociology. The development of the study of deviance in Sociology with a focus on key theoretical concepts and topics including drug use, mental health, eating disorders, and criminality.
Spring 2008 / Social Inequality: Class, Status, and Power for Professor Karen Sternheimer, University of Southern California Department of Sociology. The study of class in theories of social inequality and the development of functional, structural, and conflict theories in analyses of the homeless, the working poor, working, upper-middle class, and the rich.
Fall 2007 / Exploring Culture Through Film for Professor Lanita Jacobs-Huey, University of Southern California Department of Anthropology. Explored key anthropological concepts though an analysis of visual and written representations of different societies worldwide, emphasizing issues of identity, language, culture change, power, and resistance through theoretical ethnographic, and filmic texts.
Spring 2006 / Los Angeles: The Fiction for Professor Thomas Gustafson, University of Southern California Arts and Letters. Analyses of filmic and literary representations of Los Angeles as both utopia and distopia.
Fall 2005 / Race and Class in Los Angelesfor Professor Leland Seito, University of Southern California Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. Examined the importance of race in relation to major political, economic, gender, social, and economic issues in contemporary Los Angeles, with particular attention given to systemic forms of power.

Conference Papers & Lectures

Panelist “The Practice of Belonging in B-boying Cyphers,” paper to be presented at the American Studies Association panel “Troubling Citizenship: Belonging, Community and Resistance in an Age of Migration,” October 17, 2008 (forthcoming).

Invited Moderator“Breaking In Its 30s: The Maturing of Hip Hop’s Dance Art” ALOUD Lectures, Readings, Performances and Discussions Series at the Los Angeles Central Public Library July 30, 2008.

Invited Panelist “Battling in the Circle: Competition and Collaboration in B-Boying Cyphers” given at the City University of New York Baruch College Conference “Battling: Dueling In and Over African Diaspora Culture,” May 2, 2008.

Panelist “Dark Forces of in Dance Circles: Race and B-Boying in Global Hip Hop Culture” given at The Black Humanities Collective and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies Conference “Bodies in Motion: Diaspora, Difference, and Discursive Performances,”March 27-28, 2008.

Guest Lecturer Series “Ethnography of B-Boying: Movement as Culture” given at the University of Southern California for Professor Lanita Jacobs-Huey’s course Exploring Culture Through FilmOctober 16 and 18, 2007

Invited Panelist“Hip Hop America” for the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities Visions & Voices Program, University of Southern California. October 8, 2007

Panelist “Dark Matter: The Inter-Workings of Performance and Blackness in B-Boy/Girl Cyphers” at the Collegium of African American Research Conference (CAAR) in Madrid, Spain April 19, 2007

Panelist “Alien-Nation, Blackness and Third World Belonging in The Spook Who Sat By the Door”at The Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora Conference inRio de Janeiro, Brazil October 6, 2005

Guest Lecturer“From Underground Economy to Mainstream Market: The Corporatization of Hip Hop” given at California State University at Dominguez Hills for Professor T. Hasan Johnson’s course Hip-Hop and the African Diaspora in the US: Globalization, Masculinity, and RepresentationOctober 23, 2004

Panelist “Carnival Journeys: Women and Their Bodies in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow” at the Society for Caribbean Studies 26th Multi-Disciplinary Conference at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England July 2, 2002

Panelist “Ritual of Memory, Ritual of Performance: Carnival in Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow” at the Fifth Congress of the Americas Popular Cultures Conference at the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla-Cholula, Mexico October 19,2001

Panelist “New York Pinkster Celebrations and the Spectral Nature of Slave Life” at the Holiday Conference: A Multidisciplinary Conference on Holidays, Ritual, Festival, Celebration & Public Display at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio June 1, 2001

Teaching Areas

Theories in Performance Studies / African Diasporic Expressive Cultures
Introduction to Cultural Studies / The Practice of Ethnography
Introduction to American Studies / New Approaches in Hip Hop Studies
Race and Popular Culture / Globalization & Transnational Theories
Qualitative Methods / Critical Theory: Art and Politics

Service

July 30, 2008 / Curator “Breaking In Its 30s: The Maturing of Hip Hop’s Dance Art” presentation and performance with Rafael Xavier and Edmundo Loayza for the ALOUD Lectures, Readings, Performances and Discussions Series at the Los Angeles Central Public Library July 30, 2008.
October 2000-April 2002 / Graduate Assistant at New YorkUniversityOffice of African American, Latino and Asian American Student Services (OASIS). Designed and managed the Grants, Fellowships, and Scholarships (GFS) Database; Created of the Grants and Scholarships Resource Book. Created publicity for program events. Conducted online research on program topics. Researched and co-designed the OASIS Alumni Mentoring Program.
June 1999-September 2000 / Literacy Supervisor at the EastBay Conservation Corps/AmeriCorps Program in Oakland, CA.Supervised a 10-person team of AmeriCorps members.Planned and implemented a 1-on-1 literacy program for East Oakland1st graders.Supervised the America Reads After School Reading Program for 2nd and 3rd graders.Co-founder of the Diversity Awareness Group.
Spring 1995-Spring 1999 / Writing Tutor and Workshop Facilitator at theUniversity of California at BerkeleyCesarChavezStudentLearningCenter. Tutored individual students in beginning college-level reading and comprehension courses. Tutored both graduate and undergraduate on a drop-in basis. Interviewed, mentored, and helped train new tutors. Designed and implemented a Senior Tutor Project: Creative Interactive Tips. Organized 3 hours of workshops per week.
Summer 1998 / Teacher, Tutor, and Reading Group Leader at EastsideCollege Prepatory, East Palo AltoCA. Co-taught Language Arts for incoming 9th graders. Intensively tutored two high school students. Led a 7th grade group for one hour of reading and one hour of writing. Wrote curriculum for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Professional Affiliations

American Studies Association (AS A)

American Anthropological Association (AAA)

Association of Black Anthropologists (a section of AAA)

Collegium for African American Research (CAAR)

American Studies and Ethnicity Graduate Student Organization (PASEO)

Other Education

Fall 1998 / University of the West Indies-Cave Hill Campus, Barbados Education Abroad Program
Fall 1996 / HowardUniversity, WashingtonD.C.BlackStudentDevelopmentCenter Exchange Program

Languages

Spanish: proficient reading; beginning speaking

French: proficient reading; beginning speaking

Imani Kai Johnson

University of Southern CaliforniaDepartment of American Studies & Ethnicity

3470 Trousdale Pkwy, WPH 300 Los Angeles, CA 90089

Mobile:917.365.1075; Fax: 866.503.9255

References

Dr. Dorinne Kondo (Chair)
Professor
Anthropology
American Studies & Ethnicity
University of Southern California / Grace Ford Salvatori Hall
3601 Watt Way, Ste. 120
Los Angeles, CA90089
Office: 213.740.1910
Email:
Dr. Frederick Moten
Associate Professor
Department of English
DukeUniversity / 314 Allen Building
Durham, NC 27708
Office: 919.684.2741
Email:
Dr. Ruth Gilmore
Director Associate Professor
American Studies & Ethnicity
Geography
University of Southern California / Waites Phillips Hall, 303
3470 Trousdale Parkway, WPH 303
Los Angeles, CA90089-4033
Office: 213.740.0050
Email:
Dr. Lanita Jacobs-Huey
Anthropology
American Studies & Ethnicity
University of Southern California / Grace Ford Salvatori Hall
3601 Watt Way, Ste. 120
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Office: 213.740.1909
Email: