Professor, musician, author Dr. Bill Banfield to speak Thursday

Professor, musician, author Dr. Bill Banfield to speak Thursday

Dr. William (Bill) Banfield, professor and director of the Africana Studies/Music and Society initiative at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass., will present a film and music discussion on "Music as Cultural Studies: From Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Global to Hip Hop and Who's Not" Thursday, April 30.

Dr. William (Bill) Banfield

Sponsored by the American Culture and Difference Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas, the event will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium, Room 126, John R. Roach Center for the Liberal Arts.

This event is free and open to the public.

Banfield is a composer and jazz-performing and recording artist. He is author of Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers (2003), Black Notes: Essays of A Musician Writing In A Post Album Age (2006) and Black Notes and Cultural Codes: The Makings Of A Black Philosophy of Music (2009), all published by Scarecrow Press.

Banfield serves as consulting editor for Cultural Studies and Jazz Publications, Scarecrow Press, and also as chair for Black music culture panels for the Popular/American Culture Association. He writes for DownBeat Magazine.

Before going to Berklee, Banfield served as director of American cultural studies and jazz, popular and world music studies at the University of St. Thomas (1997-2005), and served as assistant professor of African-American studies and music at Indiana University (1992-1997).

A native of Detroit, he received his bachelor of music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, a master of theological studies degree from Boston University and a doctor of musical arts degree in composition from the University of Michigan.

For more information, contact the American Culture and Difference Program, (651) 962-5649.