april l. graham-jackson

"we had a where and a when before we had race. " -me

Research Areas

Interests

chicago metropolitan area • Black chicagoaspora • Black geographies • music, sonic, and geographical scale • time|temporalities • Black geomusicologies|geosonicologies • Black generational geographies • urban-regional political economy • racial capitalism • city-region formations • urban to suburban migration • Black womanist|feminist thought • afro-caribbean thought • Black cultural studies • Black sound studies • Black scalar methodologies • Black soundwalking • geo-ethnography

Contact

april-l-graham@berkeley.edu

Biography

i am a third generation Black chicagoan and former music journalist whose research explores how music and sound as racialized features of everyday life illuminate the ways Black americans internalize emplacement, urban to suburban migration, and the rescaling of urban-regional areas in the post-civil rights era. my work is supported through the chancellor’s fellowship and mentored research fellowship with dr. nathan sayre.

Education

2018, a.b., Black geographies, mount holyoke collegethesis: still sweatin': mapping house and Black bodies: place-making in the Black house music and cultural community of chicago
summa cum laude, phi beta kappa

2015, ags, general studies, harold washington college
with honors

Publications

Black geographies library guide, uc berkeley
“Black metropolis: from mlk to obama” course guide, molyoke college

conferences and invited presentations

"mapping Black digital footprints of virtual care and sonic wellness: nostalgic connectivities across verzuz and Black twitter during the covid-19 pandemic." from social networking to community interventions: music's role in health and wellbeing during the covid-19 pandemic. sponsored by the special interest group for medical ethnomusicology, society of ethnomusicology conference, atlanta (2021)

"Black scale: methodologies of emplacing the intersection" with robert moeller. feminist research methods and intersectionality i & ii, american association of geographers,seattle (2021)

“still sweatin': spatializing intersectional identities and place-branding within the Black house music and cultural community in chicago” engaged scholarship and social justice undergraduate research conference, harvard college (2018)

“still sweatin': spatializing intersectional identities and place-branding within the Black house music and cultural community in chicago” space, place, and music: new research in the study of geography and music, american association of geographers conference, new orleans (2018)

Black matters are spatial matters panel, american association of geographers conference, new orleans (2018)