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Research

As a cultural anthropologist, I have conducted long-term, collaborative research with performing artists in southwestern Nigeria for over 20 years. Proficient in the Yorùbá language and dance styles, I toured southwestern Nigeria as a dancer with a traveling troupe. Building on this foundation, my recent writing explores my transformative adventures as a woman navigating life in 1990s Nigeria.

I research and teach a variety of topics, including the relationship between culture and power, globalization, political economy, popular culture, social justice, performance, decolonization, and intersectionality.

​My research in California's community colleges critiques the nationwide disinvestment from public education. This work argues that faculty equity and student success are inseparable, and that a one-tiered faculty is essential for revitalizing both educational quality and California's democratic promise of opportunity for all. My recent research in Nigeria examines the negotiation of gender, Indigenous culture, and Islam through the lens of popular music.

​My book, Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global: Artists, Culture Brokers, and Fans, documents how practitioners of a 600-year-old plus performance tradition, bàtá, strategically recast themselves as traditional performers in a global market.

Gavilan College &
California Community Colleges ​​

The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the United States and third largest in the world with 2.2 million students attending 116 colleges. I'm a professor of anthropology at Gavilan College, one of the oldest colleges in the system. Gavilan serves the communities of Gilroy, Hollister, and Morgan Hill and welcomes undocumented students. My courses encourage students to explore new cultures and unfamiliar ideas. As an advocate for faculty and students, I have served as a leader of multiple local and statewide unions and organizations.

Background & Education

Raised by parents from New York, I grew up in Tampa, Florida. Now based in California, I draw inspiration from the wildness of the Pacific Ocean, the serenity of the redwood forest, and the majesty of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

​BA in Anthropology | Brown University
MA & PhD in Anthropology | UC Santa Cruz

 Select Publications | Articles & Chapters

One Faculty, One Mission: A Unified Faculty Model for California Community Colleges
Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy (2026, vol 17, 1-24)

​Welcome and Good Luck: My Immersion and Awakening in Nigeria
Unbreakable Spirit: Stories of Feminine Resilience, Blessings and Renewal (2025, 221-235)

How the Austerity Agenda Disappeared Over a Million California Community College Students: A Faculty Perspective
Teachers College Record (2024, vol 126, no. 6-7, 234-251)

Undoing the Overreliance on Part-time Faculty Could Reverse Decline of California Community Colleges
EdSource (Spring 2024)

Educational Philanthrocapitalists: Threats to Faculty, Students, and Democracy
Webinar (Spring 2023)

​Civic and Community Engagement at Gavilan College
Presentation (Spring 2023)

​Tundé Kelani, Èṣù of Nigerian Cinema: Yorùbá Aesthetic Formation, Tradition, and Morality
The Cinema of Tunde Kelani: Aesthetics, Theatricalaities and Visual Performance (2021, 20-38)

Allow Peace to Reign: Musical Genres of Fújì and Islamic Allegorize Nigerian Unity During the Era of Boko Haram
Yearbook for Traditional Music (2020, vol. 52, 1-22)

Calbright Funds Would Be Better Spent on Health Benefits for Part-time Community College Faculty
EdSource (Spring 2020)

​Fújì: Indigenous and Islamic Popular Music Fusions in Nigeria
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Sub-Saharan Africa Genres (2019, 145-151)

Being Àyàn in a Modernizing Nigeria: A Multi-Generational Perspective
The Yorùbá God of Drumming: Transatlantic Perspectives on the Wood That Talks (2015, 192-215)

A Political Economy of Lifestyle and Aesthetics: Yorùbá Artists Produce and Transform Popular Culture
Research in African Literatures (​2012, vol 43, no. 4, 128-146)

Strategic Collaborations Between Nigerians and Germans: The Making of a Yorùbá Culture Movement
​Development, Modernism and Modernity in Africa (2012, 131-145)

Làmídì Àyánkúnlé
Dictionary of African Biography (2011, 307-309)

Performing Pop Tradition in Nigeria: From Yorùbá Bàtá to Bàtá Fúji
Africans and the Politics of Popular Culture (2009, 133-164)

Building Status and Overseas Networks: Erin-Osun Artists Manage Devaluation
Money Struggles and City Life: Devaluation in Ibadan and Other Urban Centers in Southern Nigeria (2002, 221-237)

Select Publications | Books

The University of Chicago Press

Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global:
​Artists, Culture Brokers, and Fans

Responding to growing international interest in the Yorùbá culture of southwestern Nigeria, practitioners of bàtá—a centuries-old drumming, dancing, and singing tradition—have recast themselves as traditional performers in a global market. As the Nigerian market for ritual bàtá has been declining, international opportunities for performance have grown. Debbie Klein’s lively ethnography explores this disjunction, revealing the world of bàtá artists and the global culture market that helps to sustain their art. Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global describes the dramatic changes and reinventions of traditional bàtá performance in recent years. Klein explores how reinvigorated performing ensembles are beginning to parlay success on the world stage into increased power and status within Nigeria.