JONATHAN GOMEZ
Wilson Library Pre-Dissertation Prospectus Fellowship
Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Talk: Hearing the First Great Migration: The Sound and Place of Black Music in North Carolina and the American South

Jonathan Gómez is a Ph.D. student and Presidential Scholar in historical musicology at Harvard University. His goal during this research visit is to gain a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which the movement of African Americans during the First Great Migration facilitated changes in black music-making practices of the time in jazz, contemporary gospel, and theater performance.
 

AMANDA MARTINEZ
Wilson Library Dissertation Research Fellowship
Talk: Gone Country: White, Urban, and Affluent America's Performance of Southern Rural Identity

Amanda Martinez is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation, “Gone Country: White, Urban, and Affluent America’s Performance of Southern Rural Identity, 1964-1996,” looks at the social, economic, and political gains some Americans received from adopting the cultural signifiers of a rural identity. She has an article forthcoming in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, entitled “‘Redneck Chic and the Racial Contradictions of Country Music in the 1970s,” which is expected to be released in 2020.

This informal program is part of the summer and fall Wilson Library Research Forum. Each program is an opportunity to hear from one or more fellows about research work that draws on the collections and expertise of the Wilson Special Collections Library. Please visit Wilson Library’s grants and fellowships page to learn more.