Robin Kelley

Robin Kelly is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. His research has explored the history of social movements in the U.S.,
the African Diaspora, and Africa; black intellectuals; music; visual culture; contemporary urban studies; historiography and historical theory; poverty studies and ethnography; colonialism/imperialism; organized labor; constructions of race; Surrealism, Marxism,
nationalism, among other things. His essays have appeared in a wide variety of professional journals as well as general publications, including the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review,
New York Times (Arts and Leisure), New York Times Magazine, The Crisis, The Nation, The Voice Literary Supplement, Utne Reader, New Labor Forum, Counterpunch, to name a few.
Among his books: Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012),
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (The Free Press, 2009), Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press, 2002) and Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997).