Josh Kun, PhD

Biography

Josh Kun is a cultural historian, writer, and curator whose work focuses on the arts and politics of cultural connection. He is the inaugural Vice Provost for the Arts at USC where he is Professor and holder of the Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His books include Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, Songs in the Key of Los Angeles, The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles, and Double Vision: The Photography of George Rodriguez. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, New Yorker, and many other publications. As a curator of exhibitions, concerts, and performances, he has worked with Getty, The Huntington, Grammy Museum, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, California African American Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, among others. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Berlin Prize, an American Book Award, and a Grammy nomination for Best Liner Notes. He is currently writing Beats Across Borders: A Migrant Songbook, a musical examination of 21st century migration and displacement, which will be published by FSG.