Maria McMath

Department of Anthropology
mmcmath@princeton.edu

Maria McMath is conducting ethnographic research on how African-American culture--particularly the artistic trope of hip-hop--is being produced and consumed in the United States and how it migrates abroad, specifically to France. Not unlike African-American rap groups of the 1980s and 1990s, many French hip-hop artists use the genre as a means to critique their marginalization by the mainstream and the difficulties of assimilation. The study examines these artistic immigrant critiques more closely, as well as the ways in which the French nation attempts to censor such critiques, both explicitly and implicitly.