Anthony Kwame Harrison

Anthony Kwame Harrison is an Alumni Distinguished Professor and Professor of Sociology with a half-time appointment in the Africana Studies Program.

His research and teaching generally explore issues surrounding race, popular music, qualitative research methodologies, and social space. An interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Harrison has presented his work at conferences focusing on anthropology, sociology, Black studies, popular music studies, philosophy, marketing, qualitative inquiry, life writing, and higher education pedagogy. He is President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) – US Branch, Vice President of the US Board of Directors of the Race and the Marketplace (RIM) Network, and Past-President of the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Society (AAA).

Harrison has authored several books, in addition to numerous academic articles and chapters in edited volumes. His first book, Hip Hop Underground: The Integrity and Ethics of Racial Identification is an ethnographic study of a multiracial community of hip-hop practitioners in the San Francisco Bay Area. His second book, Ethnography, is a historically informed, future-facing overview of cultural anthropologies principal research methodology. He also co-edited Race in the Marketplace: Crossing Critical Boundaries and curated a special issue of the French arts-based journal Dysfunction, dedicated to the life and career of James “Billboard” Jackson.

Harrison completed a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in cultural anthropology at Syracuse University. He is the winner of multiple teaching awards and a former chair of Virginia Tech’s Academy of Teaching Excellence.