Popular culture
UC Berkeley brings together scholars and practitioners working across digital media, cinema, music, television and performance studies. They can speak to a wide range of pop culture topics, from viral media and fan communities to race and representation in media, global popular music, cults and American spirituality, AI and creative practice, and gender and sexuality on screen.
Additional lists of experts for media are available on Berkeley News. Journalists needing assistance: email [email protected].
Assistant professor of ethnomusicology
Anthropology of sound, Indigenous Mexican music (pirekua), Latin American music and popular culture, sound politics, migration. UC Berkeley News. Speaker of Spanish and English.
Associate teaching professor of American studies and African American studies
Race in popular culture, radical politics and media, conspiracy theories, political cartoons. KQED Forum, PolitiFact, UC Berkeley News, the Washington Post
Professor and chair of theater, dance and performance studies; professor in the Berkeley Center for New Media
Internet culture, fan communities, viral media, fan fiction, celebrity, digital archives, film, television, social media, politics and media. Yahoo Entertainment, UC Berkeley News, KQED, CBS News, Wired
Professor of theater, dance and performance studies
History of celebrity, public vs. private identity, online fandoms and celebrity gossip. Berkeley Talks podcast, San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley Voices podcast
Continuing lecturer in American Studies
History of U.S. popular culture and media; hair, body and beauty standards. Clio Dialogues podcast, the New Yorker, C-SPAN’s American History TV, Berkeley Voices podcast
Professor of history
History of everyday life, leisure activities, mass media. Off the Deaton Path podcast, UC Berkeley News, the Atlantic, Something You Should Know podcast
Professor and Louis B. Agassiz Chair in Chinese
Chinese popular music, sound studies and audio media technology, modern Chinese media culture, literary translation.
Professor of theater, dance and performance studies
Dance studies, Asian American performance, embodied politics, intercultural movement, performance aesthetics. San Francisco Chronicle, International Examiner, UC Berkeley News
Professor of musicology
Pop music trends, boy bands, national anthems and political music, popular song mechanics. Academic Review, UC Berkeley News
Associate professor of African American studies
Race, culture and gender in the U.S. and Latin America; racial identity and classification; Afro-Latinx identity. KQED Forum, Cal Matters, The Edge podcast, UC Berkeley News. Speaker of Spanish and English.
Assistant professor of musicology
American popular music history, ragtime and its revivals, love songs, music, race and nostalgia in 20th-century U.S. culture.
Associate professor of English and chair of the Program in Critical Theory
Cults in popular culture, history of cults and American spirituality, postcolonial and Asian American studies, feminist and queer theory, race and representation in media. UC Berkeley News, CBS News, NPR: It’s Been a Minute, Berkeley Voices podcast, KQED Forum
Associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Digital culture, electronic literature, AI and creative practice, Spanish and Latin American popular culture. UC Berkeley News, Berkeley Talks podcast. Speaker of Spanish and English.
Professor in the Department of Scandinavian and School of Information
Online folklore and conspiracy narratives, storytelling on social media, K-pop dance and music videos, and data-driven analysis of digital culture. Rolling Stone, CNN, the Guardian, 101 in 101 video, UC Berkeley News, Berkeley Talks podcast
Assistant professor of composition
Jazz and improvisation, Afrofuturist music, Black artistic expression, experimental composition. KALX
Lecturer of African American studies and African diaspora studies
Black music history, funk and soul culture, social movements. UC Berkeley News
Associate professor of French and of film and media
Digital culture and selfie history, gender and sexuality on screen, French/global art cinema, meme aesthetics and social media. UC Berkeley News. Speaker of French and English.