Keynote Speaker:

Gaye Theresa Johnson

Gaye Theresa Johnson is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and an affiliated faculty member in the Departments of History and Chicana/o Studies at UC Santa Barbara.  She holds a B.A. in Sociology and Ethnic Studies from the University of California at San Diego, and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Johnson’s areas of expertise are twentieth century U.S. history; race and racism; social movements and identities, and cultural history with an emphasis on music. Her publications appear in Aztlán:  A Journal of Chicana/o Studies, the Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas, the National Women’s Studies Association Journal, the Journal of Comparative Literatures, two edited collections on race and popular culture, and the Encyclopedia of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. In 2006, her essay, "'Sobre Las Olas': A Mexican Genesis in Borderlands Jazz" won a national award, "Best Paper in Comparative Ethnic Studies," from the American Studies Association. Professor Johnson is completing a manuscript entitled The Future Has a Past: Politics, Music and Memory in Afro-Chicano Los Angeles.