Maureen Mahon is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include African American music and culture; the construction and performance of race and gender in music; and the relationship between race, class, generation, and culture. She teaches courses on the history of rock and roll, music and the construction of race, fieldwork methods, and African American women and music. She is the author of Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll (Duke University Press, 2020), an exploration of the pivotal part African American women have played in the development of rock and roll. Her first book, Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (Duke University Press, 2004), is an ethnographic study that examines the ways African American rock musicians used music and activism to challenge the limitations placed on black music and black identity in the 1980s and 1990s. Her articles on African-American cultural studies have appeared in academic venues such as American Ethnologist, Journal of Popular Music Studies; Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture; Ethnomusicology; Journal of the American Musicological Society; and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and online at EbonyJet.com and on the websites of National Public Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. She was chair of the Popular Music section of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) from November 2016 to November 2020 and has served on the American Musicological Society’s (AMS) Committee on Race and Ethnicity. Currently, she is a member of the SEM Council and the AMS Council. Prof. Mahon was the Chief Academic Advisor to “Soundtrack of America,” a five-night concert series celebrating the impact of African American music on contemporary culture that was one of the inaugural commissions for the April 2019 opening of The Shed. Conceived by black British filmmaker Steve McQueen, “Soundtrack of America” was developed with the input of a creative team that included African American composer and producer Quincy Jones and featured 25 emerging artists. She has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the American Association of University Women, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2018, she received an NYU Golden Dozen Award in recognition of her contributions to undergraduate teaching.
Maureen Mahon
Associate Professor
B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University (1987); M.A. (1993), M.Phil. (1994) Ph.D. (1997) in anthropology from NYU
contemporary African American culture; the construction and performance of race, gender, and sexuality in music; musical genre; history of rock and roll; and the relationship between race, class, generation, and culture
Golden Dozen Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, College of Arts and Science, New York University, 2018; National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2013-2014; American Fellow, American Association of University Women, 2000-2001
Books
Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll. (Duke University Press, 2020)
Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race (Duke University Press, 2004)
Selected Articles and Chapters
“Constructing Race and Engaging Power Through Music: Ethnomusicology and Critical Approaches to Race,” Theory for Ethnomusicology: Histories, Conversations, Insights, edited by Ruth M. Stone and Harris M. Berger, pp. 99-113, Routledge Press, 2019.
“How Bessie Smith Influenced a Century of Popular Music,” Turning the Tables: 8 Women Who Invented American Popular Music, National Public Radio (NPR), posted August 5, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/05/747738120/how-bessie-smith-influenced-a-century-of-popular-music
“African American Women and the Dynamics of Gender, Race, and Genre in Rock ‘n’ Roll,” in Issues in African American Music, Volume II, Mellonee Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby, eds., pp. 287-305. Routledge Press, 2016
“The Rock and Roll Blues: Gender, Race, and Genre in the Songwriting Career of Rose Marie McCoy, Women and Music. A Journal of Gender and Culture 19:62-70 (2015)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/592117
"Music, Power, and Practice," Ethnomusicology 58 (2):322-328 (Spring/Summer 2014)
"Music, Sexuality, and Power: A Practice Theory Approach," Colloquy on Music and Sexuality, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 66(3):844-848 (Fall 2013)
"Listening for Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Voice: The Sound of Race and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll," Women and Music. A Journal of Gender and Culture 15:1-17, (2011) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/457048
"They Say She's Different: Race, Gender, and Genre and the Liberated Black Femininity of Betty Davis," Journal of Popular Music Studies, 23(2): 146-165, June 2011.
"The 'Daughters of Soul' Tour and the Politics and Possibilities of Black Music," Ethnographies of Neoliberalism, Carol J. Greenhouse, ed., pp. 207-220. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
"African Americans and Rock' n Roll," in African Americans and Popular Culture: Volume III, Music and Popular Art, Todd, ed., pp. 31-60. Praeger Publishers, 2008.
Photo by Joy Bell