Gayle Wald is professor of American Studies. She is a feminist scholar with specialties in African American literature and culture and U.S. popular music. She is particularly interested in popular music in relation to issues of cultural memory and subjugated knowledge. She is author of 3 books: Crossing the Line: Racial Passing in 20th-Century U.S. Literature and Culture (Duke 2000), Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Beacon 2007), and It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television (Duke 2015). Her Rosetta Tharpe biography has inspired a documentary film (Mick Czaky’s Godmother of Rock) and a musical (Shout, Sister, Shout!, dir. Randy Johnson; book by Cheryl West). She is currently working on a book that examines the intersections of civil rights, childhood, and sonic democracy in the work of pioneering children’s musician Ella Jenkins. Prof. Wald’s research has been supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.