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Birgitta Johnson

Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow

Research and Teachng Interests

Ethnomusicology; African American and African music; music and worship in African American churhces; musical change and identity in Black popular music; music in African American megachurhces; and sacred music in the African diaspora.

Specific genres: gospel music, praise and worship, blues, hip-hop, rhythm and blues, soul, and neo-soul.


Selected Articles/Book Chapters

“Back to the Heart of Worship: Praise and Worship Music in One African American Megachurch in Los Angeles” in Black Music Research Journal 31:1 (Spring 2011),105-129.

Review of Higher Ground: Voices of Contemporary Gospel (Chatsworth, California: New Day Multimedia, 2004, film documentary). In Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology 12. 2006.


Education

Ph.D. Ethnomusicology, UCLA, 2008

M.A. Ethnomusicology, UCLA, 2002

B.A. Music, Agnes Scott, 1999


Courses

Blues, Society, and American Culture

The Cultural History of Rap

Music of Africa

African American Sacred Music: From Spirituals to Stomp!


Awards, Honors, Grants

Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA Graduate Division, 2006-07 
Summer Research Grant, Historical Society of Southern California, 2006 
Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Institute of American Cultures/Ralph A. Bunche Center
for African American Studies, UCLA  2005-06
Summer Research Grant, Historical Society of Southern California, 2005
Vassie Davis Wright Scholar, Our Authors Book Club, Inc. Chapter of
the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc., 2005
Elaine Krown Klein/UCLA Affiliates Award, UCLA, 2004
Summer Research Grant, Institute of American Cultures/Ralph Bunche
Center for African American Studies, UCLA, 2004  
Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, UCLA, 2000-04
Summer Research Grant, Quality of Graduate Education, UCLA, 2003
Evelyn and Mo Ostin Performing Arts Award, UCLA, 2002