Fall lecture series focuses on gospel music

The University will host four speakers in a fall lecture series titled "Made in America: The History of Black Gospel Music."

The four lectures, all at 4:30 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, are:

  • Thursday, Sept. 25: "Our Music Was Tambourines and Sometimes Guitar: Contemplating the Roots of Black Gospel" by Jerma Jackson, an assistant professor of history at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the author of the book "Singing in My Soul: Black Gospel Music in a Secular Age."
  • Thursday, Oct. 23: "Why the Golden Age of Gospel Music Matters" by Robert Darden, an assistant professor of journalism at Baylor University and a former gospel music editor at Billboard magazine.
  • Thursday, Nov. 20: "Shouting Sinners: The Spirituals, the Blues and the Gospel of the Kingdom" by Teresa Reed, the director of the University of Tulsa School of Music.
  • Wednesday, Dec. 3: "Y'all Like That? Power, Practice and Contemporary Gospel" by Guthrie Ramsey Jr., an associate professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of "Race Music: Black Cultures From Bebop to Hip-Hop."

The series is sponsored by the Center for African American Studies, the Department of Religion, the Council of the Humanities, the Department of Music, the Program in American Studies, the Davis Center for Historical Studies, the Center for the Study of Religion and the J. Edward Farnum Fund of the University Public Lectures Series.