Hip hop is a musical genre and culture that emerged in the mid-1970s in New York City and rapidly expanded into a global phenomenon, developing both as an increasingly interdisciplinary artform, and as a cultural practice and discourse that intersects with sociology, political science, English, urban affairs, anthropology, history, marketing, Africana studies, visual arts, dance, technology, and much more. The extraordinary range of interdisciplinarity in Hip Hop has attracted attention in academia since the late 1980s, and this engagement continues to grow. 


In a virtual conversation on March 23 from 3 to 5 p.m., A.D. Carson, a professor of Hip Hop in the music department at the University of Virginia, will join Virginia Tech faculty members and students in exploring possible futures for Hip Hop in the academy. The conversation will draw on Carson’s experiences as a scholar in the field and on the experiences of the Hip Hop Studies community at Virginia Tech.



This event is presented by the School of Performing Arts with the support of VTDITC.

Founded in 2016, Digging in the Crates: Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech, or #VTDITC, exists to foster community-based learning among hip hop artists, fans, practitioners, and scholars digitally and globally. #VTDITC aims to model that students, faculty, and staff’s personal interests are worthy of academic study and publication as well as to institutionalize the presence of Hip Hop studies on Virginia Tech’s Blacksburg campus.

The event is free and open to the public. Click here to register.

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Susan Sanders at least 10 business days prior to the event.

In image of a vinyl record with the words Digging in the Crates Hip Hop Studies at Virginia Tech University Libraries underneath