Gabbard, Krin 1948–

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Gabbard, Krin 1948–

PERSONAL: Born January 29, 1948, in IL; son of Glendon (an actor) and Lucina (an actress; maiden name, Paquet) Gabbard; married Paula Beversdorf (a librarian), July 31, 1973. Education: University of Chicago, A.B., 1970; Indiana University—Bloomington, M.A., 1972, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES: Home—505 Court St., Apt. 4B, Brooklyn, NY 11236. Office—Department of Comparative Literature, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794; fax: 631-632-5707. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of South Dakota, Vermillion, assistant professor of comparative literature, 1977–79; Stephens College, Columbia, MO, assistant professor of comparative literature, 1979–81; State University of New York at Stony Brook, assistant professor, 1981–87, associate professor, 1987–96, professor of comparative literature, 1997–, chair of the department of comparative studies, acting director of Federated Learning Community, 1989–90. Visiting professor of film studies, Columbia University, 2001. Producer and announcer of "Jazz on the Air," WUSB-FM Radio. Member of advisory board, Forum for the Psychoanalytic Study of film, 1989.

MEMBER: Modern Language Association of America, American Comparative Literature Association, Society for Cinema Studies (member of executive council, 2003).

AWARDS, HONORS: George S. Kaufman Playwriting Prize, Dramatists Guild Fund, 1970; National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 1979; University Award, Stony Brook Foundation, 1982; State University at Stony Brook Exceptional Service to Undergraduate Education award, 1985, Merit Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1987, Merit Award for Teaching and Curriculum Development, 1995, and Presidential Mini-Grant for Innovative Teaching Projects, 1998; National Book Award nomination, 1996, for Jammin' at the Margins.

WRITINGS:

(With Glen O. Gabbard) Psychiatry and the Cinema, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1987, second edition, American Psychiatric Press (Arlington, VA), 1999.

(Editor) Jazz among the Discourses, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1995.

(Editor) Representing Jazz, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1995.

Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1996.

Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 2004.

Also contributor of chapters to numerous books, including Jazz in Mind: Essays on the History and Meanings of Jazz, edited by Reginald T. Buckner and Steven Weiland, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1991; Screen Memories, by Harvey R. Greenberg, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1993; Jazz: A Century of Change, edited by Lewis Porter, Schirmer (New York, NY), 1997; The Louis Armstrong Companion: Eight Decades of Commentary, edited by Joshua Berett, Schirmer (New York, NY), 1999; Music and Cinema, edited by James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer, Wesleyan University Press (Westport, CT), 2000; Cinesonic: Experiencing the Soundtrack, edited by Philip Brothy, Australian Film Television and Radio School (North Ryde, Australia), 2001; The Cambridge Companion to Jazz, edited by Merwyn Cooke and David Horn, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2002; and The Other Side of Nowhere, edited by Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble, Wesleyan University Press (Middletown, CT), 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Helios, Bucknell Review, Literature/Film Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Performing Arts: Broadcasting, Journal of Popular Musical Studies, Culture Front, American Music, Psychiatric Times, Menninger Perspective, and Psychoanalytic Review. Book review editor, Men and Masculinities, 1994–; editorial board member, Cinema Journal, 1998–2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Krin Gabbard is a literature professor with a strong interest in film and music, especially jazz. In his book Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema the author traces the history of jazz in film, beginning with jazz singer Al Jolson's appearance in the first talking movie, aptly titled The Jazz Singer. Writing in Cineaste, David Segal noted that "the book is not so much about jazz and the American cinema per se as it is about the representation of jazz in American film." Segal went on to comment, "This allows Gabbard to bring up questions of race, gender, sexual orientation, the jazz canon, 'art' vs. 'commercialism,' high art and popular culture, et al." Kathryn Kalinak, writing in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, called the effort "a wonderful book: well-researched, cogently argued and highly readable. That it accomplishes its goals in an area previously neglected in film (and music) scholarship clearly establishes it as the standard in the field."

In his Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture the author examines Hollywood's representation of black culture and society in films, as well as how individual blacks have been portrayed in cinema. For example, he discusses movies in which black heavenly figures such as angels come to the aid of white people, "seeing them as an expression of the desire for racial healing without giving up white privilege,"as Vanessa Bush noted in Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Africa America Review, summer, 1997, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., review of Representing Jazz, p. 348.

American Music, spring, 1997, Ingrid Monson, reviews of Jazz among the Discourses and Representing Jazz, p. 110; summer, 1998, Bernard Gendron, review of Jammin' at the Margins: Jazz and the American Cinema, p. 227.

Booklist, May 15, 2004, Vanessa Bush, review of Black Magic: White Hollywood and African American Culture, p. 1588.

Cineaste, fall, 1996, David Segal, review of Jammin' at the Margins, p. 67.

Entertainment Weekly, September 20, 1996, David Hajdu, review of Jammin' at the Margins, p. 74.

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, March, 1997, Kathryn Kalinak, review of Jammin' at the Margins, p. 168.

Popular Music and Society, fall, 1991, Neil Lerner, review of Jammin' at the Margins, p. 122.