The Feminist and Gender Studies Department is proud to announce that Dr. Heidi R. Lewis, Associate Professor of Feminist and Gender Studies and David & Lucile Packard Professor at Colorado College, is featured talking about her current book project in the inaugural FGS Faculty Spotlight.

The Feminist and Gender Studies Faculty Spotlight is a space where we proudly honor and celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty, while also going behind the scenes of academic labor to offer a more situated, lived, embodied, felt, and critical perspective on the process of knowledge production.

For this inaugural edition, we invited Dr. Heidi R. Lewis to give us a sneak peek into the book she has been working on for the past few years and is now in the final stages of writing. In the process, we also invited her to reflect on what writing this book has taught her about herself and about the multiple forms that feminist knowledge production can take. Entitled Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap ‘Crisis’, the book is under contract with Oxford University Press, as part of their new book series “Theorizing African American Music.” In Make Rappers Rap Again, Lewis argues that Mumble Rap is real Hip Hop. She does so by problematizing real Hip Hop norms for engaging with its origins and old heads; recovering longstanding debates about what Hip Hop has been, is, and should be; demonstrating the ways most mumble rappers practice citational and collaborative politics congruent with real Hip Hop; taking a comprehensive approach to examining the Mumble Rap sound; geographically situating Mumble Rap as southern; and examining how Mumble Rap challenges dominant narratives about Hip Hop masculinity. The book could not be more timely as this year (2023) marks the 30th anniversary of Hip Hop Studies and the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop.

You can read the inaugural edition of the FGS Faculty Spotlight and learn more about Professor Lewis’ book here. We also hope you will attend the two talks (one in the fall and the other in the spring) where Professor Lewis will be sharing more of her work. Entitled “Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap ‘Crisis’ Part I: The Old Heads,” the first talk is being hosted by the Feminist and Gender Studies Department and will take place over a catered lunch on November 9th at 12:30 PM in McHugh Commons. The second talk entitled “Make Rappers Rap Again: Interrogating the Mumble Rap ‘Crisis’ Part II: The South” is being organized by the Black Student Union and will take place on April 10th at 1:30 PM (location TBD). Please mark your calendars and help us spread the word about these exciting opportunities where we are sure to learn invaluable insights about the importance of thinking carefully about Mumble Rap, musical history, cross-generational debate, the South, and so much more!