Welcome to Riffs, Beats, & Codas.

My name is Vincent L. Stephens (he/him/his) and I am excited to share my writing on popular music with you!

R, B, & C is written for people interested in reading a fresh perspective on popular music, as well as popular culture. I launched the site in February 2015 as a space for sharing ideas on popular music that complements my academic writing. Each month, I publish critical commentary on a musically related topic on the essay blog. The site also feature book reviews of various music related publications including autobiographies, biographies, and critical studies published on academic and commercial presses.

You will also find links to other books, encyclopedias, scholarly journals, and websites featuring my writing.

The Basics

I’m an American Studies scholar who writes about post-WWII U.S. popular culture. I have published essays in peer-reviewed academic journals on multiple genres of popular music including essays on Eminem in Popular Music, the definition of jazz singing in American Music, and Johnny Mathis in Popular Music and Society, which won the 2010 R. Serge Denisoff Award for Best Article Published in Popular Music and Society.

My writing about the soft rock genre appears in the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume VIII (David Horn, editor; Continuum, 2012) and recent published work includes “Open Secrecy: Self-Presentation by Queer Male Musicians” in Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide (Deborah Bell, editor; McFarland & Co., 2014). I have also written about vocal jazz for All About Jazz Online.

Additionally, I have published essays on television, film, and literary fiction  in African-American Review, The Journal of Popular Culture, and Culture, Trauma, and Conflict: Cultural Perspectives on War [2nd edition] (Nico Carpentier, editor; Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015).

In 2017, Bucknell University Press/Rowman & Littlefield published the anthology Postracial America? An Interdisciplinary Study co-edited by me and Anthony Stewart.

For more info please go to the following link (copy & paste): https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781611487794/Post-Racial-America?-An-Interdisciplinary-Study.

 My book 2019’s Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music (University of Illinois Press) is now on sale in paperback, hardcover and e-versions from various retailers. Check out the “Author Updates and Happenings” section of the blog to read more about the reviews for the book and opportunities I have received to comment on figures in the book including a 2022 documentary on Johnnie Ray and a 2022 book on the music of Johnny Mathis.

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To order a copy from the University of Illinois Press please go to the following link: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/p084638.html

I also welcome you to checkout my essay, “Camping and Vamping across Borders: Locating Cabaret Singers in the Black Cultural Spectrum” in 2020’s Are You Entertained? New Essays on Black Culture in the 21st Century. Eds. Simone C. Drake and Dwan K. Henderson (Duke University Press). To order a copy from Duke University Press please go to the following link: https://www.dukeupress.edu/are-you-entertained

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2020’s African American Culture: An Encyclopedia of People, Traditions, and Customs, Eds. Omari L. Dyson, Judson L. Jeffries, and Kevin L. Brooks (Greenwood Press) features my essay on the African-American Male Crooning Traditions including Paula Robeson, Nat “King” Cole, Billy Eckstine, Johnny Hartman, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, and Kevin Mahogany. To order a copy please visit the following link: https://products.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5693C


My most recent writing project is Broads, Sisters, Exes: Millennial Feminist Television (Wayne State University Press) forthcoming in spring 2025. Stay tuned!

I earned a B.S. in Mass Communication/Print Journalism from Emerson College, an M.A. in Popular Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park. I have taught courses at these three schools and was awarded a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities at Syracuse University in 2006 where I worked until 2011.  I served as the Director of Multicultural Student Services at Bucknell University from 2011-2015. From June 2015-January 2021 I served as the Director of the Popel Shaw Center for Race and Ethnicity at Dickinson College. from Fall 2017-Fall 2021, I was also a Contributing Faculty member in the Department of Music at Dickinson College. In January 2021 I began as the Associate Dean, Diversity and Inclusion, in the College of Arts & Sciences at Boston University, and also teach as a lecturer in the Department of music..

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Vincent L. Stephens Career Overview (Updated January 2024):

VINCENT L. STEPHENS (he/him/his)

Academic Specializations:

  • Popular Culture and Media Studies

  • Popular Music Studies

  • Television Studies

  • Queer Theory and Feminist Thought

  • African-American Studies

Administrative Specializations:

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Leadership

  • Strategic Planning, Program Development, and Change Management

  • Peer Mentoring Programs

  • High Impact Educational Practices

 Education:

·       Ph.D., American Studies, 2005, University of Maryland, College Park

·       M. A., Popular Culture Studies, 1999, Bowling Green State University

·       B. S., Mass Communication, emphasis in Print Journalism, 1997, Emerson College

 Administrative Experience:

·       Associate Dean for Diversity and inclusion, College of Arts & Sciences, Boston University, 2021-present

·       Director, Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity, Dickinson College, 2015-2020

·       Director, Multicultural Student Services, Bucknell University, 2011-2015

 Teaching Experience:

·     Lecturer, School of Music, College of Fine Arts, Boston University, 2022-present 

·     Contributing Faculty, Department of Music, Dickinson College 2018-2021

·      Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in the Humanities, Syracuse University, 2006-2010

·      Visiting Assistant Professor, American Studies and LGBT studies program, University of Maryland, College Park, 2005-2006

·       Graduate Instructor, Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, 1999-2001

·       Graduate Instructor, Department of Popular Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University, 1997-1999

 Books:

  •  Broads, Sisters, Exes: Millennial Feminist Television (Wayne State University Press, forthcoming 2025)  

  •  Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music, University of Illinois Press, 2019

  •  Post Racial America? An Interdisciplinary Study (co-edited with Anthony Stewart), Bucknell University Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017

 Essay and Articles:

  • Vincent L. Stephens, with Amy Davis, Shallary Duncan and Rosalie Rodriguez, “Will This Last: A sustainable model of peer mentoring.” The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching. 7 (November 2023): 65-70. The Chronicle of Mentoring and Coaching - CMC2023 - page Cover (mentor-cmc.com)

  • “Mediating the world class imperative: U.S. automotive journalism, the Big Three, and the Globalized Automotive Industry of the 1980s.” Automotive History Review. 64 (Summer 2023): 76-89.   

  • “Whitelash in the heartland: 1977 speaks to today through the voice of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”  Over*Flow: Flow: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture. 3 November 2021. https://www.flowjournal.org/2021/11/whitelash-in-the-heartland/

  • “Camping and Vamping across Borders: Locating Cabaret Singers in the Black Cultural Spectrum.” Are You Entertained? New Essays on Black Culture in the 21st Century. Eds. Simone C. Drake, and Dwan K. Henderson. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020. 58-76

  • “Valuing the Whole Student: Adapting Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy to Peer Mentoring.” The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching 2.1 (October 2019): 108-11

  • “Impact by Intention: An Argument for Forensics as a High Impact Practice.” National Forensic Journal 36.1 (Fall 2019): 24-41

  • “Appreciative Advising for Peer Mentors: A Training Module for Peer Mentor Programs,” The Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching 1.8 (December 2017): 1492-96

  • “Introduction” (co-written with Anthony Stewart). Post Racial America? An Interdisciplinary Study. Eds. Vincent Stephens and Anthony Stewart. Lanham, Maryland: Bucknell University Press/Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 1-18

  • “Open Secrecy: Self-Presentation by Queer Male Musicians.” Masquerade: Essays on Tradition and Innovation Worldwide.  Ed. Deborah Bell. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., 2015. 145-55

  • “Odd Family Out: Closely Reading Kate & Allie’s ‘New Women’ Household,” The Journal of Popular Culture 46.4 (2013): 886-908

  • “What Child Is This? Closely Reading Collectivity and Queer Childrearing in Lackawanna Blues and Noah’s Arc,” African-American Review 44.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2011): 235-53

  • “Shaking the Closet: Analyzing Johnny Mathis’s Sexual Elusiveness, 1956-1982,” Popular Music and Society 33.5 (December 2010): 597-623

  • “Crooning on the Fault Lines: Theorizing Jazz and Pop Vocal Singing Discourse in the Rock Era, 1955-1978,” American Music 26.2 (Summer 2008): 156-95

  • “American Infants: Coping with Trauma and Becoming Historical in A Home at the End of the World and American Pastoral.” Culture and Conflict: Cultural Studies Perspectives on War. Ed. Nico Carpentier. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 183-208

  • “Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia,” Reprinted in Common Culture: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture. 5th ed. Eds. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2006. 261-83

  • “Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia,” Popular Music 24.1 (January 2005): 21-36

 Encyclopedia Entries:

  •  “Introducing Inclusive Pedagogy Education to College Educators.” Encyclopedia of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Spirituality. Joan Marques, Editor. London: Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32257-0

  • “Male Crooning Tradition,” African American Culture: An Encyclopedia of People, Traditions, and Customs, Volume 2. Omari L. Dyson, Judson L. Jeffries, and Kevin L. Brooks, Editors. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2020. 608-13

  • “Soft Rock.” Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume VIII. Ed. David Horn. New York: Continuum, 2012. 436-39

 Invited Presentations:

 ·  “Visibly Hidden: Exploring queer masculinities in 1950s popular music,” LGBTQIA+ Scholar Series, LGBTQIA+ Faculty and Staff Center, Boston University, October 28, 2022.

 · “Bloom where you’re planted,” Chi Sigma Alpha, University of North Carolina (UNC) Greensboro, February 24, 2021.

·       “Visibly Hidden: Exploring queer masculinities in 1950s popular music,” Hot Topics Series, Retired Professionals of Dickinson College, August 5, 2020.

·       “Visibly Hidden: Exploring queer masculinities in 1950s popular music,” Syracuse Symposium Series, Syracuse University Humanities Center, March 2, 2020

·       “Rocking the Closet: How Johnnie Ray, Little Richard, Johnny Mathis and Liberace Queered Pop Music,” Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Book Talk Series, Allentown, Pennsylvania, February 20, 2020

·       “Rocking the Closet: How Johnnie Ray, Little Richard, Johnny Mathis and Liberace Queered Pop Music,” Waidner-Spahr Library, FaculTea presentation series, Dickinson College, December 4, 2019

·       “Visibly Hidden: Exploring queer masculinities in 1950s popular music,” Women’s and Gender Resource Center and Women’s and Gender Studies Faculty Research Series, Dickinson College, November 21, 2019

·       “ ‘Queering’ gay history and music history,” AMST 200/WGSS 301-01: Gay American Histories, Katherine Schweighofer, Visiting Asst. Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Dickinson College, November 29, 2016

·       “Writing and maintaining the Riffs, Beats & Codas blogsite,” WRPG 211/ENGL 212-01: Writing in and for Digital Environments, Sarah Kersh, Assistant Professor of English, Dickinson College, September 30, 2016

·       “Camping and Vamping Across Borders: Locating Cabaret Singers in the Black Cultural Spectrum,” Women’s and Gender Resource Center and Women’s and Gender Studies Faculty Research Series, Dickinson College, September 30, 2015

·       “Reflections on the burden of ‘representation,’ ” ENG 301: Modern African American Drama, Prof. Ted Merwin, Dickinson College, September 21, 2015

·       “Queer Studies Scholarship,” Fran’s House (LGBTQ Themed Small House), Bucknell University, April 16, 2013

·       “Rocking the Closet: Queer Musicians and the Limits of the Closet,” Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender, Faculty Colloquium, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (CSREG), Dickinson College, April 4, 2013

 Conference Presentations:

  •  Co-Presenter (with Deborah Breen and Megan Sullivan), “Developing an inclusive pedagogy institute for your campus’s faculty,” 2024 Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment, American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Providence, Rhode Island, April 12-13, 2024

  •  Co-Presenter (with Amy Davis, Shallary Duncan, and Rosalie Rodriguez), “Will This Last: A sustainable model of peer mentoring,” 2023 Mentoring Conference, The Mentoring Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 23-27, 2023

  •  Co-presenter (with Laura Driscoll, Melisa Osborne, Angela Seliga, and Barkha Shah), and organizer, “Committing to the Committee: A successful approach to impactful DEIAJ committee work,” National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 30-June 3, 2023

  • “Valuing the whole college student: Adapting culturally sustaining pedagogy to peer mentoring,” 2019 Mentoring Conference, The Mentoring Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 21-25, 2019

  • “Valuing the whole college student: Adapting culturally relevant pedagogy to peer mentoring,” 21st Pennsylvania Chapter National Association for Multicultural Education (PA-NAME) Conference, Kutztown University, Kutztown, Pennsylvania, March 8-9, 2019

  • Co-Presenter (with Donna Bickford), “Educating a new generation: A social justice peer educator model,” 20th Pennsylvania Chapter National Association for Multicultural Education (PA-NAME) Conference, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 16-17, 2018

  • “Appreciative Advising for Peer Mentors: A training module for peer mentor programs,” 2015 Mentoring Conference, The Mentoring Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 20-23, 2015

  • Poster Session Presenter, “Anatomy of an Ambassador: A program for creating culturally fluent servant leaders,” National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE), Washington D.C., May 28, 2015

  • Poster Session Presenter, “Peer Mentorship, the Next Generation: Fluid Approaches to Changing Needs,” National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE), Washington D.C., May 28, 2015

  • “Partnering for Progress: Strategies for Placing Multicultural Affairs in the Center of Campus Life,” Pennsylvania Association of Liaisons and Officers of Multicultural Affairs (PALOMA) 6th Statewide Conference, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, July 9-11, 2013

  • “Shaking the Closet: Analyzing Johnny Mathis’s Sexual Elusiveness, 1956-1982.” Sounds Queer Conference, Kings College, London, England, June 4, 2010

  • “Intimate and Ethical Associations: Reading Black Communality in Lackawanna Blues,” for “Family Dissonance: Critiquing Familial Authority in Film and TV,” a Special Session (organizer and chair). Modern Language Association Annual Convention (MLA), San Francisco, California, December 27-30, 2008

  • “Adult Dissonance: Examining ‘Alternative’ Kinships in Popular Culture.” 6th Annual Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, New York University, New York, New York, May 22-24, 2008

  • “Queerworlds Seminar” participant. 6th Annual Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, New York University, New York, New York, May 22-24, 2008

  • “What Child is This?: A Queer-of-Color Iconographic Intervention.” Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA) Conference, Buffalo, New York, April 10-13, 2008

  • “ ‘Love’ . . . Beyond Blood: Lackawanna Blues, ‘othermothering’ and black millennial kinship.” Black Cultural Interventions into Gender and Sexuality Studies (Past, Present & Future), University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, March 23-24, 2007

  • “American Infants: Coping with trauma and becoming historical in A Home at the End of the World and American Pastoral.” 4th Annual Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, Washington D. C., April 19-22, 2006

  • “Queer Emergences and Ethnic Evasions: Social and sexual ethics in American Pastoral and A Home at the End of the World.” Middle-Atlantic American Studies Association (MASA) Conference, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, March 31-April 1, 2006

  • “Beyond Balkanization and Conformity: Examining the Hierarchies of Queer Citizenship.” 2005 GLBTQ Studies Conference, “Gender Resistance & Queer Counter Knowledges,” UNC-Asheville, Asheville, North Carolina, March 31-April 2, 2005

  • “Ain’t That Peculiar: Johnnie Ray, Racial and Gender Deviance, and the 1950s Press.” 2nd Annual Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, May 5-9, 2004

  • “Not Like the Others: Johnny Mathis, Black Masculinity and the Contemporary Sex/Gender Economy.” 34th Popular Culture Association (PCA) and 26th American Culture Association (ACA) Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas, April 7-10, 2004

  • “He’s So Unusual: Juxtaposing Johnnie Ray with Post-WWII Cultural Conformity.” “Queer Performances in America: 1945-1954 Conference,” Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, April 2-3, 2004

  • “Pop Goes the Rapper: A Close Reading of Eminem’s Genderphobia.” 1st Annual Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 5-8, 2003

 Fellowships and Awards:

 ·       2020 Honorary Faculty/Staff member, Queer Cap Society (senior LGBTQ+ honor society), Dickinson College, May 8, 2020

·       Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music selected as one of “12 fascinating works of LGBTQ nonfiction to help pass the time,” Queerty, April 4, 2020

·       Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music selected as one of “The Best Queer(ish) Non-Fiction Tomes We Read in 2019,” The Advocate, December 28, 2019

·       2020 Dana Research Assistant grant recipient for Cue the Music: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as a 21st century metonym, Dickinson College Research & Development Committee, November 15, 2019

·       2019 Dana Research Assistant grant recipient for Cue the Music: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as a 21st century metonym, Dickinson College Research & Development Committee, August 21, 2019

·       2019 Honorary Faculty/Staff member, The Order of the Scroll and Key (senior honor society), Dickinson College, April 26, 2019

·       2019 Publication grant recipient for Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music, AMS 75 PAYS Endowment of the American Musicological Society, Fall 2018

·       2018 Publication grant recipient for Rocking the Closet: How Little Richard, Johnnie Ray, Liberace, and Johnny Mathis Queered Pop Music, Dickinson College Research & Development Committee, August 27, 2018

·       2018 Recipient, Outstanding Service Award, Lavender Reception, Dickinson College Office of LGBTQ Services, April 20, 2018

·       2015-16 MSS Faculty Fellowship program grant recipient, Bucknell Innovation Group (BiG), February 2015

·       2015 Diversity Mini-Grant recipient (with International Student Services), ISS & MSS Senior recognition initiative, February 2015 

·       Bucknell University Emerging Leaders Program, Fall 2014-Spring 2015

·       Inaugural award for “Extraordinary Dedication and Service,” Black Student Union, Bucknell University, December 4, 2013

·       Summer Research Grant recipient, Project: 2013 Black History Month: A Celebration in Blue, Center for Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender (CSREG), Bucknell University, June 2012

·       2010 R. Serge Denisoff Award for Best Article Published in Popular Music and Society, for “Shaking the Closet: Analyzing Johnny Mathis’s Sexual Elusiveness, 1956-1982,” December 2010

·       Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow in the Humanities, Syracuse University, Fall 2006-Spring 2010

·       Carl Bode Prize for Outstanding American Studies Dissertation, University of Maryland College Park, Spring 2005

·       Rodler-Wood Scholarship for LGBT Studies, University of Maryland College Park, Spring 2005

·       Graduate Assistantship, Department of African-American Studies, University of Maryland College Park, Fall 1999-Spring 2001

·       Graduate Fellowship, Department of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State University, Fall 1997-Spring 1999