Sina A. Nitzsche | University of Bristol (original) (raw)
Books by Sina A. Nitzsche
Poetic Resurrection: The Bronx in American Popular Culture, 2020
While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that... more While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that »The Bronx is burning,« this study challenges that assumption. As the first explicit study on The Bronx in American popular culture, this book shows how a wide variety of cultural representations engaged in a complex dialogue on its past, present, and future. Sina A. Nitzsche argues that popular culture ushered in the poetic resurrection of The Bronx, an artistic and imaginative rebirth, that preceded, promoted, and facilitated the spatial revival of the borough.
Popular Music and Public Diplomacy: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Perspectives, 2018
In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public dip... more In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public diplomacy involving popular music. While the diplomatic use of popular music was initially limited to such genres as jazz, the second half of the 20th century saw a growing presence of various popular genres in diplomatic contexts, including rock, pop, bluegrass, flamenco, funk, disco, and hip-hop, among others.
This volume illuminates the interrelation of popular music and public diplomacy from a transnational and transdisciplinary angle. The contributions argue that, as popular music has been a crucial factor in international relations, its diplomatic use has substantially impacted the global musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The open access book can be downloaded at the publisher's website.
At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in sch... more At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in schools. This collection of essays, which emerged from a graduate student conference at TU Dortmund University, demonstrates their immense medial, artistic, and cultural potential. Authors from different academic perspectives - Applied Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Narratology, and Postcolonial Studies - take readers on an engaging trip through the world of contemporary comic books ranging from widely popular series to exclusive avant-garde auteur works.
Collection of Essays/Book, Nov 19, 2013
"Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays... more "Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays to take a pan-European perspective in the study of hip-hop. How has it traveled to Europe? How has it developed in the various cultural contexts? How do its constituent elements – graffiti, DJing, MCing and b-boying – enter into dialogue with each other across borders?
Hip-Hop in Europe expands the current research on this fascinating art form by interpreting it as a complex phenomenon marked by a multitude of transnational and transcultural interactions between neighboring cultures, local traditions, and references to the American cultures of origin.
The 21 authors and artists provide a comprehensive overview of hip-hop cultures in Europe from the fringes to the centers. They address hip-hop in a variety of contexts such as class, ethnicity, gender, history, pedagogy, performance, war, as well as Communism and its aftermath.
Hip-Hop in Europe is essential reading for anyone interested in studying, teaching, and learning about European hip-hop cultures as well as about hip-hop in a transatlantic context."
Journal Articles by Sina A. Nitzsche
Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, Mar 27, 2012
Infodienst - Das Magazin für Kulturelle Bildung, 2019
Words, Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture, 2019
The development of hip-hop culture is deeply interwoven with the American city (see Rose, 1994; F... more The development of hip-hop culture is deeply interwoven with the American city (see Rose, 1994; Forman, 2002; Friedrich and Klein, 2003; Mager 2007). In its mythical birthplace of the Bronx young African Caribbean, African Americans, and Hispanics came together to dance, write, perform, and produce rap music in the 1970s. Hip-hop emerged as a political movement from a context of deindustrialization and immigration and spread globally to other urban centers. Today, cities in Europe continue to offer a multitude of possibilities for MCs, DJS, b-boys, and graffiti artists to represent their respective neighborhoods, and with it their identities and aspirations, in a multiplicity of ways (see Nitzsche and Grünzweig, 2013).
This contribution re-examines the importance of deindustrialization and the notion of shrinking in German hip-hop culture. Situated in Cultural Studies’ critical approach of discourse analysis, it is concerned with representation, meaning, and power relations (Hall, 1997) and contends that hip-hop culture, urban change, and empowerment are inevitably intertwined. Taking rap music in the Ruhr Area as my prime example, I argue that hip-hop culture allows local youth from various racial, ethnic, class, and gender backgrounds to remix hegemonic decline narratives. Enabling young people to express, voice, and articulate their own experience of decline, hip-hop creates powerful counter narratives to dominant ideas of deindustrialization, structural change, and globalization (Beck, 2000). As such hip-hop can be used productively in educational contexts to activate their linguistic, cultural, and performative senses of self. The Ruhr Area is of special significance here because it is the largest metropolitan region in Germany which is slowly transforming from an industrial to a post-industrial region. Its hip-hop culture is very dynamic, but often overlooked in the field of hip-hop studies in Germany (Nitzsche, 2013, p. 5). This contribution
therefore expands my earlier analysis of rap in the Ruhr as a transnational phenomenon (see Nitzsche, 2013) by foregrounding
socio-cultural and economic transformation processes.
Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Pu... more Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Published in 1994, her autobiography No Disrespect narrates the artist’s rise from poverty to become one of the most prolific writers, educators and activists in the 1990s. Yet critics tend to overlook the autobiography’s strong emphasis on activism, especially how it is embedded in larger Afro-diasporic female literary traditions. No Disrespect re-writes earlier traditions of black women’s writing, visual culture and social activism in order to educate a younger generation on the ongoing need to promote racial justice. The autobiography is located in the larger context of what Paul Gilroy has called the Black Atlantic by situating it not only in American, but also in African cultural traditions.
I join Reiland Rabaka and others in moving forward the field of hip hop studies by establishing more cultural, literary and visual continuities between late twentieth-century hip hop culture and earlier literary forms of Afro-diasporic expression, such as poetry and autobiography. In tracing Sister Souljah’s oeuvre to the beginnings of African American women’s literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is the aim of the article to contribute a new perspective to the origins of hip hop culture and activism beyond the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a c... more Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a
change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities.
Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of
Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR
as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre
with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new,
inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
The article can be downloaded at the journal's website (see link).
Call for Papers by Sina A. Nitzsche
4th EHHSN Meeting 2022: Call for Papers, 2021
The fourth meeting of the European Hiphop Studies Network is organized in collaboration with La P... more The fourth meeting of the European Hiphop Studies Network is organized in collaboration with La Place: Centre for Hip-Hop Culture, and La Philharmonie de Paris. The two-day, bilingual English and French Network meeting will lead into a two-day French-language conference on the creation, legitimization, and patrimonialization of hip-hop cultures (28-29 January 2022). Both the Network meeting and conference complement the museum exhibition "Hip-Hop 360" at La Philharmonie, centred on the history of hip-hop and its arrival in France. As such, we welcome all participants to plan their stay in Paris from 26 to 29 January 2022 to take full advantage of the conferences, the museum exhibit, and a series of hip-hop events in the city.
Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop ... more Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop Studies (GHHS) is a peer-reviewed, rigorous and communityresponsive academic journal that publishes research on contemporary as well as historical issues and debates that surround hip hop music and culture around the world. The Special Issue's remit Deejaying; emceeing; breaking; graffiti: these are commonly considered hip hop's four core elements. While hip hop contains multiple elements beyond its core, many hip hop artists, activists and fans worldwide understand and recognize a 'fifth element' as knowledge. This naming practice shows us how hip hop communities understand the importance of the history, values and artistry of the culture beyond their own temporal-spatial borders. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation in the 1970s (Chang 2005), hip hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realization ('knowledge of self'), empowerment and information about the history of the genre as well as its key practitioners (Gosa 2015; Alim, Haupt, Williams 2018).
Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop ... more Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop Studies (GHHS)
Deejaying; emceeing; breaking; graffiti: these are commonly considered hip hop's four core elements. While hip hop contains multiple elements beyond its core, many hip hop artists, activists and fans worldwide understand and recognize a 'fifth element' as knowledge. This naming practice shows us how hip hop communities understand the importance of the history, values and artistry of the culture beyond their own temporal-spatial borders. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation in the 1970s (Chang 2005), hip hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realization ('knowledge of self'), empowerment and information about the history of the genre as well as its key practitioners (Gosa 2015; Alim, Haupt, Williams 2018).
The field of hip-hop studies cannot exist without the engagement and involvement of hip-hop pract... more The field of hip-hop studies cannot exist without the engagement and involvement of hip-hop practitioners. The organising committee welcomes proposals for contributions to our annual meeting that reflect this understanding. These might ‘break the rules’ of conventional academic conferences in Europe and the committee challenges scholars to embrace the opportunity to use “the masters’ tools to break the masters’ rules” (Lorde).
[for more please check the website and/or the pdf]
Submission Deadline: 29 May 2020.
Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood to consist of these four ele... more Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!
Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as w... more Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as well as for the social structure of urban communities. Particularly in mass media and popular culture, the common representation of declining urban spaces is dominated by images of physical decay and destitute people as well as narratives of social failure, lack of morality, and crime. These spaces and communities are thus presented as having little to nothing to offer with respect to educational achievement, creative expressivity and intellectual development. Indeed, at the same time as some cities, such as San Francisco and Portland, have become celebrated icons of growth, creative energy and hip intellectualism, others, including Detroit and Newark, seem to have become mired in their image as examples of economic decline, social destitution, and educational apathy. They thus appear to be what social critic Chris Hedges has called " sacrifice zones, " economically exploited, politically abandoned, and socially marginalized areas without hope. Whereas Hedges' critical term implicates structural forces of e.g. neoliberal politics and institutionalized racism in these cities' decline, dominant cultural representations of e.g. the South Bronx of the 1970s and 1980s or contemporary Detroit in photography, film, and TV not only focus on dereliction, decay, and crime, but also tend to lay much of the blame for the decay on the moral, educational, and motivational shortcomings of the people living in these areas, often racial and ethnic minorities. These cultural texts thereby perpetuate the stigmatizing representation by what urban critic Robert Beauregard has called the hegemonic " voices of decline " and fail to acknowledge that declining urban spaces oftentimes open up new opportunities to rethink existing norms, dominant values, and, most importantly, conventional pedagogies.
This panel provides a new take on urban decline by interrogating and elevating the roles and possibilities of education and pedagogy in those spaces. It seeks to uncover popular cultural strategies and educational/pedagogical practices of dissent and resistance to dominant narratives of moral decay and physical decline of places such as Detroit or The Bronx. Looking at particularly visual material and cultural practices, the proposed panel examines the alternative voices and transformative spatial practices emerging from urban decline contexts as forms of discursive resistance that create new physical and imagined spaces in which teaching and learning can happen outside of established institutions. By engaging in an aesthetic of dissent, popular cultural texts and practices are providing possibilities of a subversive and critical reaction to dominant representations of marginalized urban spaces. They thereby engage in a transformative pedagogy that strives to educate and empower disenfranchised local and national communities. These dissenting voices thus challenge and undermine not only notions of apparently morally failing and economically hopeless cities that may be sacrificed but also issue a powerful critique of one-sided hegemonic representations of urban space in general.
Please send your abstract (500 words) and a short biography (350 words), to Eric Erbacher and Sina Nitzsche by 31 May 2017. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
TU Dortmund 6-8 November 2015 Deadline for Submissions: 1 April 2015
Interviews by Sina A. Nitzsche
A conversation on hip-hop studies, gender, and race.
Book Reviews by Sina A. Nitzsche
Global Hip Hop Studies , 2020
This article reviews Jeff Ross' Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art.
Book Chapters by Sina A. Nitzsche
Rap & Geschlecht: Inszenierungen von Geschlecht in Deutschlands beliebter Musikkultur, 2021
Shirin David ist eine der bekanntesten Frauenfiguren im Deutschrap. Im Jahr 2014 startete sie ihr... more Shirin David ist eine der bekanntesten Frauenfiguren im Deutschrap. Im Jahr 2014 startete sie ihre Karriere als YouTube-Influencerin und wechselte darauf in das Rapbusiness. Als eine der derzeit erfolgreichsten Rapper*innen mit über 130 Millionen Aufrufen auf YouTube, über 5 Millionen Followern auf Instagram (@shirindavid) und einem eigenen Douglas-Parfüm Created by Shirin bereichert David die oft männlich dominierte HipHop-Kultur mit einer neuen Facette von Weiblichkeit. Warum ist sie so erfolgreich? Wie inszeniert sie ihre Femininität in den sozialen Medien? Und wie sind ihre Weiblichkeit und Sexualität intersektional mit weiteren Identitätskategorien verschränkt?
Ziel unseres Beitrags ist es, die Inszenierung von Weiblichkeit bei Shirin David intermedial und intersektional zu analysieren. Unter Bezugnahme von Ansätzen aus den amerikanischen Feminist HipHop-Studies (Bradley; Keyes; Morgan) sowie aus den Medienwissenschaften (Caldeira, Ridder, van Bauwel; Clark; Jenkins) werden wir insbesondere Davids Inszenierungsstrategien in den sozialen Medien Instagram und YouTube untersuchen. Dabei vertreten wir die These, dass Shirin David eine neue Art von Femininität im Deutschrap darstellt, die sich im Spannungsfeld von Kontinuität und Abgrenzung zu existierenden Weiblichkeitsinszenierungen bildet. Einerseits rekurriert Shirin David auf transnationale Weiblichkeitskonstruktionen amerikanischer Rapperinnen, wie zum Beispiel Nicki Minaj und Cardi B. Diese zeichnen sich durch ihre body positivity, ihren sex-positiven Feminismus und ihr female entrepreneurship aus. Andererseits grenzt David sich stark von existierenden Frauenbildern im Deutschrap ab (Völker und Menrath 11-20), wie der der Bitch, der Gangsta-Rapperin oder der Sista with Attitude. Mit unserem Kapitel wollen wir einen wichtigen Beitrag für die HipHop-Forschung in Deutschland leisten, um die Lücke von Weiblichkeitsentwürfen von Rapperinnen in den sozialen Medien zu schließen.
Poetic Resurrection: The Bronx in American Popular Culture, 2020
While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that... more While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that »The Bronx is burning,« this study challenges that assumption. As the first explicit study on The Bronx in American popular culture, this book shows how a wide variety of cultural representations engaged in a complex dialogue on its past, present, and future. Sina A. Nitzsche argues that popular culture ushered in the poetic resurrection of The Bronx, an artistic and imaginative rebirth, that preceded, promoted, and facilitated the spatial revival of the borough.
Popular Music and Public Diplomacy: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Perspectives, 2018
In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public dip... more In the early years of the Cold War, Western nations increasingly adopted strategies of public diplomacy involving popular music. While the diplomatic use of popular music was initially limited to such genres as jazz, the second half of the 20th century saw a growing presence of various popular genres in diplomatic contexts, including rock, pop, bluegrass, flamenco, funk, disco, and hip-hop, among others.
This volume illuminates the interrelation of popular music and public diplomacy from a transnational and transdisciplinary angle. The contributions argue that, as popular music has been a crucial factor in international relations, its diplomatic use has substantially impacted the global musical landscape of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The open access book can be downloaded at the publisher's website.
At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in sch... more At the beginning of the 21st century, comics are a medium ‘on the rise’ in scholarship and in schools. This collection of essays, which emerged from a graduate student conference at TU Dortmund University, demonstrates their immense medial, artistic, and cultural potential. Authors from different academic perspectives - Applied Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Narratology, and Postcolonial Studies - take readers on an engaging trip through the world of contemporary comic books ranging from widely popular series to exclusive avant-garde auteur works.
Collection of Essays/Book, Nov 19, 2013
"Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays... more "Hip-Hop in Europe: Cultural Identities and Transnational Flows is the first collection of essays to take a pan-European perspective in the study of hip-hop. How has it traveled to Europe? How has it developed in the various cultural contexts? How do its constituent elements – graffiti, DJing, MCing and b-boying – enter into dialogue with each other across borders?
Hip-Hop in Europe expands the current research on this fascinating art form by interpreting it as a complex phenomenon marked by a multitude of transnational and transcultural interactions between neighboring cultures, local traditions, and references to the American cultures of origin.
The 21 authors and artists provide a comprehensive overview of hip-hop cultures in Europe from the fringes to the centers. They address hip-hop in a variety of contexts such as class, ethnicity, gender, history, pedagogy, performance, war, as well as Communism and its aftermath.
Hip-Hop in Europe is essential reading for anyone interested in studying, teaching, and learning about European hip-hop cultures as well as about hip-hop in a transatlantic context."
Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, Mar 27, 2012
Infodienst - Das Magazin für Kulturelle Bildung, 2019
Words, Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture, 2019
The development of hip-hop culture is deeply interwoven with the American city (see Rose, 1994; F... more The development of hip-hop culture is deeply interwoven with the American city (see Rose, 1994; Forman, 2002; Friedrich and Klein, 2003; Mager 2007). In its mythical birthplace of the Bronx young African Caribbean, African Americans, and Hispanics came together to dance, write, perform, and produce rap music in the 1970s. Hip-hop emerged as a political movement from a context of deindustrialization and immigration and spread globally to other urban centers. Today, cities in Europe continue to offer a multitude of possibilities for MCs, DJS, b-boys, and graffiti artists to represent their respective neighborhoods, and with it their identities and aspirations, in a multiplicity of ways (see Nitzsche and Grünzweig, 2013).
This contribution re-examines the importance of deindustrialization and the notion of shrinking in German hip-hop culture. Situated in Cultural Studies’ critical approach of discourse analysis, it is concerned with representation, meaning, and power relations (Hall, 1997) and contends that hip-hop culture, urban change, and empowerment are inevitably intertwined. Taking rap music in the Ruhr Area as my prime example, I argue that hip-hop culture allows local youth from various racial, ethnic, class, and gender backgrounds to remix hegemonic decline narratives. Enabling young people to express, voice, and articulate their own experience of decline, hip-hop creates powerful counter narratives to dominant ideas of deindustrialization, structural change, and globalization (Beck, 2000). As such hip-hop can be used productively in educational contexts to activate their linguistic, cultural, and performative senses of self. The Ruhr Area is of special significance here because it is the largest metropolitan region in Germany which is slowly transforming from an industrial to a post-industrial region. Its hip-hop culture is very dynamic, but often overlooked in the field of hip-hop studies in Germany (Nitzsche, 2013, p. 5). This contribution
therefore expands my earlier analysis of rap in the Ruhr as a transnational phenomenon (see Nitzsche, 2013) by foregrounding
socio-cultural and economic transformation processes.
Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Pu... more Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Published in 1994, her autobiography No Disrespect narrates the artist’s rise from poverty to become one of the most prolific writers, educators and activists in the 1990s. Yet critics tend to overlook the autobiography’s strong emphasis on activism, especially how it is embedded in larger Afro-diasporic female literary traditions. No Disrespect re-writes earlier traditions of black women’s writing, visual culture and social activism in order to educate a younger generation on the ongoing need to promote racial justice. The autobiography is located in the larger context of what Paul Gilroy has called the Black Atlantic by situating it not only in American, but also in African cultural traditions.
I join Reiland Rabaka and others in moving forward the field of hip hop studies by establishing more cultural, literary and visual continuities between late twentieth-century hip hop culture and earlier literary forms of Afro-diasporic expression, such as poetry and autobiography. In tracing Sister Souljah’s oeuvre to the beginnings of African American women’s literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is the aim of the article to contribute a new perspective to the origins of hip hop culture and activism beyond the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a c... more Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a
change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities.
Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of
Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR
as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre
with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new,
inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
The article can be downloaded at the journal's website (see link).
4th EHHSN Meeting 2022: Call for Papers, 2021
The fourth meeting of the European Hiphop Studies Network is organized in collaboration with La P... more The fourth meeting of the European Hiphop Studies Network is organized in collaboration with La Place: Centre for Hip-Hop Culture, and La Philharmonie de Paris. The two-day, bilingual English and French Network meeting will lead into a two-day French-language conference on the creation, legitimization, and patrimonialization of hip-hop cultures (28-29 January 2022). Both the Network meeting and conference complement the museum exhibition "Hip-Hop 360" at La Philharmonie, centred on the history of hip-hop and its arrival in France. As such, we welcome all participants to plan their stay in Paris from 26 to 29 January 2022 to take full advantage of the conferences, the museum exhibit, and a series of hip-hop events in the city.
Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop ... more Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop Studies (GHHS) is a peer-reviewed, rigorous and communityresponsive academic journal that publishes research on contemporary as well as historical issues and debates that surround hip hop music and culture around the world. The Special Issue's remit Deejaying; emceeing; breaking; graffiti: these are commonly considered hip hop's four core elements. While hip hop contains multiple elements beyond its core, many hip hop artists, activists and fans worldwide understand and recognize a 'fifth element' as knowledge. This naming practice shows us how hip hop communities understand the importance of the history, values and artistry of the culture beyond their own temporal-spatial borders. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation in the 1970s (Chang 2005), hip hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realization ('knowledge of self'), empowerment and information about the history of the genre as well as its key practitioners (Gosa 2015; Alim, Haupt, Williams 2018).
Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop ... more Special Issue: '"Knowledge Reigns Supreme": The Fifth Element in Hip Hop Culture' Global Hip Hop Studies (GHHS)
Deejaying; emceeing; breaking; graffiti: these are commonly considered hip hop's four core elements. While hip hop contains multiple elements beyond its core, many hip hop artists, activists and fans worldwide understand and recognize a 'fifth element' as knowledge. This naming practice shows us how hip hop communities understand the importance of the history, values and artistry of the culture beyond their own temporal-spatial borders. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation in the 1970s (Chang 2005), hip hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realization ('knowledge of self'), empowerment and information about the history of the genre as well as its key practitioners (Gosa 2015; Alim, Haupt, Williams 2018).
The field of hip-hop studies cannot exist without the engagement and involvement of hip-hop pract... more The field of hip-hop studies cannot exist without the engagement and involvement of hip-hop practitioners. The organising committee welcomes proposals for contributions to our annual meeting that reflect this understanding. These might ‘break the rules’ of conventional academic conferences in Europe and the committee challenges scholars to embrace the opportunity to use “the masters’ tools to break the masters’ rules” (Lorde).
[for more please check the website and/or the pdf]
Submission Deadline: 29 May 2020.
Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood to consist of these four ele... more Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.
The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.
We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.
Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!
Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as w... more Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as well as for the social structure of urban communities. Particularly in mass media and popular culture, the common representation of declining urban spaces is dominated by images of physical decay and destitute people as well as narratives of social failure, lack of morality, and crime. These spaces and communities are thus presented as having little to nothing to offer with respect to educational achievement, creative expressivity and intellectual development. Indeed, at the same time as some cities, such as San Francisco and Portland, have become celebrated icons of growth, creative energy and hip intellectualism, others, including Detroit and Newark, seem to have become mired in their image as examples of economic decline, social destitution, and educational apathy. They thus appear to be what social critic Chris Hedges has called " sacrifice zones, " economically exploited, politically abandoned, and socially marginalized areas without hope. Whereas Hedges' critical term implicates structural forces of e.g. neoliberal politics and institutionalized racism in these cities' decline, dominant cultural representations of e.g. the South Bronx of the 1970s and 1980s or contemporary Detroit in photography, film, and TV not only focus on dereliction, decay, and crime, but also tend to lay much of the blame for the decay on the moral, educational, and motivational shortcomings of the people living in these areas, often racial and ethnic minorities. These cultural texts thereby perpetuate the stigmatizing representation by what urban critic Robert Beauregard has called the hegemonic " voices of decline " and fail to acknowledge that declining urban spaces oftentimes open up new opportunities to rethink existing norms, dominant values, and, most importantly, conventional pedagogies.
This panel provides a new take on urban decline by interrogating and elevating the roles and possibilities of education and pedagogy in those spaces. It seeks to uncover popular cultural strategies and educational/pedagogical practices of dissent and resistance to dominant narratives of moral decay and physical decline of places such as Detroit or The Bronx. Looking at particularly visual material and cultural practices, the proposed panel examines the alternative voices and transformative spatial practices emerging from urban decline contexts as forms of discursive resistance that create new physical and imagined spaces in which teaching and learning can happen outside of established institutions. By engaging in an aesthetic of dissent, popular cultural texts and practices are providing possibilities of a subversive and critical reaction to dominant representations of marginalized urban spaces. They thereby engage in a transformative pedagogy that strives to educate and empower disenfranchised local and national communities. These dissenting voices thus challenge and undermine not only notions of apparently morally failing and economically hopeless cities that may be sacrificed but also issue a powerful critique of one-sided hegemonic representations of urban space in general.
Please send your abstract (500 words) and a short biography (350 words), to Eric Erbacher and Sina Nitzsche by 31 May 2017. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
TU Dortmund 6-8 November 2015 Deadline for Submissions: 1 April 2015
Rap & Geschlecht: Inszenierungen von Geschlecht in Deutschlands beliebter Musikkultur, 2021
Shirin David ist eine der bekanntesten Frauenfiguren im Deutschrap. Im Jahr 2014 startete sie ihr... more Shirin David ist eine der bekanntesten Frauenfiguren im Deutschrap. Im Jahr 2014 startete sie ihre Karriere als YouTube-Influencerin und wechselte darauf in das Rapbusiness. Als eine der derzeit erfolgreichsten Rapper*innen mit über 130 Millionen Aufrufen auf YouTube, über 5 Millionen Followern auf Instagram (@shirindavid) und einem eigenen Douglas-Parfüm Created by Shirin bereichert David die oft männlich dominierte HipHop-Kultur mit einer neuen Facette von Weiblichkeit. Warum ist sie so erfolgreich? Wie inszeniert sie ihre Femininität in den sozialen Medien? Und wie sind ihre Weiblichkeit und Sexualität intersektional mit weiteren Identitätskategorien verschränkt?
Ziel unseres Beitrags ist es, die Inszenierung von Weiblichkeit bei Shirin David intermedial und intersektional zu analysieren. Unter Bezugnahme von Ansätzen aus den amerikanischen Feminist HipHop-Studies (Bradley; Keyes; Morgan) sowie aus den Medienwissenschaften (Caldeira, Ridder, van Bauwel; Clark; Jenkins) werden wir insbesondere Davids Inszenierungsstrategien in den sozialen Medien Instagram und YouTube untersuchen. Dabei vertreten wir die These, dass Shirin David eine neue Art von Femininität im Deutschrap darstellt, die sich im Spannungsfeld von Kontinuität und Abgrenzung zu existierenden Weiblichkeitsinszenierungen bildet. Einerseits rekurriert Shirin David auf transnationale Weiblichkeitskonstruktionen amerikanischer Rapperinnen, wie zum Beispiel Nicki Minaj und Cardi B. Diese zeichnen sich durch ihre body positivity, ihren sex-positiven Feminismus und ihr female entrepreneurship aus. Andererseits grenzt David sich stark von existierenden Frauenbildern im Deutschrap ab (Völker und Menrath 11-20), wie der der Bitch, der Gangsta-Rapperin oder der Sista with Attitude. Mit unserem Kapitel wollen wir einen wichtigen Beitrag für die HipHop-Forschung in Deutschland leisten, um die Lücke von Weiblichkeitsentwürfen von Rapperinnen in den sozialen Medien zu schließen.
Contact Spaces of American Culture: Globalizing Local Phenomena., 2012
![Research paper thumbnail of "Breaking the Panel! Comics as a Medium" [Introduction]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/40736847/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Introduction to the edited volume Breaking the Panel! Comics as a Medium.
The street or the “hood” are typically regarded as heteronormative and hypermasculine urban space... more The street or the “hood” are typically regarded as heteronormative and hypermasculine urban spaces where chauvinist drug lords reign and pimps showcase their misogynistic swagger. In recent years, however, a new kind of fiction emerged which challenges those spatialized imaginations by situating queer narratives in the "hood." Charles Rice-Gonzáles’ gay romance Chulito (2011), for instance, locates a coming-out story between the Puerto Rican teenagers Chulito and his love interest Carlos in the Hunts Point neighborhood of The Bronx. My paper argues that the novel Chulito re-imagines The Bronx as a queer space which allows its male protagonists to discover and navigate their sexual identities within a larger framework of the heteronormative space of the "hood."
Popular Music and Public Diplomacy: Transnational and Transdisciplinary Perspectives, 2018
While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that... more While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that »The Bronx is burning,« this study challenges that assumption. As the first explicit study on The Bronx in American popular culture, this book shows how a wide variety of cultural representations engaged in a complex dialogue on its past, present, and future. Sina A. Nitzsche argues that popular culture ushered in the poetic resurrection of The Bronx, an artistic and imaginative rebirth, that preceded, promoted, and facilitated the spatial revival of the borough.
Studien zur Schul- und Bildungsforschung, 2022
Journal of World Popular Music
Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Pu... more Sister Souljah is arguably one of the most important female “raptivists” in the United States. Published in 1994, her autobiography No Disrespect narrates the artist’s rise from poverty to become one of the most prolific writers, educators and activists in the 1990s. Yet critics tend to overlook the autobiography’s strong emphasis on activism, especially how it is embedded in larger Afro-diasporic female literary traditions. No Disrespect re-writes earlier traditions of black women’s writing, visual culture and social activism in order to educate a younger generation on the ongoing need to promote racial justice. The autobiography is located in the larger context of what Paul Gilroy has called the Black Atlantic by situating it not only in American, but also in African cultural traditions. I join Reiland Rabaka and others in moving forward the field of hip hop studies by establishing more cultural, literary and visual continuities between late twentieth-century hip hop culture and earlier literary forms of Afro-diasporic expression, such as poetry and autobiography. In tracing Sister Souljah’s oeuvre to the beginnings of African American women’s literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it is the aim of the article to contribute a new perspective to the origins of hip hop culture and activism beyond the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
International Journal of Cultural Studies
Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a c... more Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities. Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new, inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
Cultural Studies
While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that... more While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that »The Bronx is burning,« this study challenges that assumption. As the first explicit study on The Bronx in American popular culture, this book shows how a wide variety of cultural representations engaged in a complex dialogue on its past, present, and future. Sina A. Nitzsche argues that popular culture ushered in the poetic resurrection of The Bronx, an artistic and imaginative rebirth, that preceded, promoted, and facilitated the spatial revival of the borough.
Global Hip Hop Studies
Review of: Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, Jeffrey Ian Ross (ed.) (2016)New York C... more Review of: Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, Jeffrey Ian Ross (ed.) (2016)New York City: Routledge International HandbooksISBN 978-1-13879-293-7, h/bk, £160.00, p/bk, £31.99, ebook, £25.99