Gavilan College &
California Community Colleges

The California Community Colleges comprise the largest system of higher education in the United States with 2.1 million students attending 115 colleges. I'm currently serving as the president of the statewide Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC) and as a professor of anthropology at Gavilan College in Gilroy and Hollister. Gavilan College welcomes Dreamers, AB540, and DACA students. As the director of Gavilan's Anthropology Program for the past 16 years, I'm excited to announce our new anthropology degree.

As a faculty leader, I have served as president of the Gavilan College faculty union, president of Gavilan’s academic senate, Social Science Department chair, and Executive Committee member of the statewide academic senate. As a labor activist, I helped organize and lead two successful strikes, played a key role organizing the UC Santa Cruz graduate student union, and at Gavilan College, instigated the incorporation of part-time faculty members into the faculty union.

Research

I've been conducting ethnographic research with performing artists in southwestern Nigeria for over twenty years. Recently honored with a chieftaincy title in Èrìn-Òṣun, I'm looking forward to future collaborations with colleagues in Nigeria.
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Based on fieldwork throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s, my ethnography, Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global: Artists, Culture Brokers, and Fans, documents how practitioners of bàtá—a centuries-old drumming, dancing, and singing tradition—have recast themselves as traditional performers in a global market. This book delves into the lives of Yorùbá musicians, focusing on their strategic collaborations with artists, culture brokers, researchers, and entrepreneurs worldwide.

​My recent research investigates the aesthetics and politics of Yorùbá Islamic culture within the context of Nigerian regional and national politics. This project examines the negotiation of gender and morality through the lens of the popular musical genres of fújì and Islamic.

Education

BA | Anthropology | Brown University
MA & PhD | Anthropology | University of California at Santa Cruz
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Visiting legislators with students
As an anthropologist, I study and teach a variety of topics: the relationship between culture and power, globalization, political economy, popular culture, social justice, performance, decolonization, critical race theory, ethnomusicology, gender studies, and Yorùbá Studies.
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Chief Debbie, King Ọyágbọdún II, Chief Làmídì Àyánkúnlé

In the News

Talking with Drums exhibit (Switzerland)
​Benito Link (California)
​The Guardian (Nigeria)

Select Publications (Nigeria)

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

"Tundé Kelani, Èṣù of Nigerian Cinema: Yorùbá Aesthetic Formation, Tradition, and Morality"
Journal of Communication and Media Research (vol. 2, no. 2, in press)

"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 (vol 43, no. 4, 2012, 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)
The University of Chicago Press, 2007

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, showing how they are continually recreated, performed, and sold. Klein explores how reinvigorated performing ensembles are beginning to parlay success on the world stage into increased power and status within Nigeria. Klein’s study of the interwoven roles of innovation and tradition will interest scholars of African, global, and cultural studies, anthropology, and ethnomusicology alike.

Select Publications (California Community Colleges)

"Calbright Funds Would Be Better Spent on Health Benefits for Part-time Community College Faculty"
EdSource (April 24, 2020)

"Making Progress Toward Part-time Faculty Equity"
FACCCTS (Spring 2020)

"Diversity and Whiteness in the California Community Colleges: Recommendations Toward Institutional Transformation"
FACCCTS (Fall 2019)

Video Shorts

In 2017, Èrìn-Òṣun celebrated the installation of five new chiefs. Here's the first part of our ceremony. Ire oo!
Alhaja Seidat Fatimah granted me and my research team an interview in Ìlọrin. Here she sings an excerpt, unplugged, from her famous CD, Kádàrá/Destiny.
Delving into my new research with wéré, fújì, and Islamic artists in Ìlọrin. Emir Gambari offers some reflections about the recent violence in Nigeria.
A small slice of the opening ceremony for the celebration of Òrìṣà Ṣàngó in Èrìn-Òṣun, Nigeria. Behold the beautifully clear dancing and bàtá drumming, which inspired possession.
The Lébe alárìnjó group played for a funeral in Ifón. They're training children to dance by encouraging them to improvise. Túndé Ayangoke played the omele méta to inspire the dancers.
The Èrìn-Òṣun alárìnjó troupe, Lébe, performed for a funeral in Ògbàagbàá. They're singing in the neotraditional style called ewì, praise poetry sung by masquerade performers. Songs include: oríkì, prayers, incantations, proverbs, & moral stories.
A wonderful clip of acrobatic tricks performed by alárìnjó troupes. Alárìnjó performers are born into masquerade families who revere and bear sacred masks for the Egúngún, Òrìṣà of the ancestors.
A depiction of long-term anthropological study and preliminary exploration of the intersections between Òrìṣà, Islam, and popular culture in Òṣun, Ondó, and Kwara States. Egúngún make an appearance.
Yorùbá masquerade dancers, Fúnké and Wusilat Òjéyẹmí, sang praise songs and danced bàtá in Èrìn-Òṣun.
ÀyànÀgalú of Èrìn-Òṣun played for Òrìṣà Èṣù, Ṣàngó, Ọbàtálá, and Òṣun. This is a straight-up drumming archive featuring Chief Làmídì Àyánkúnlé on ìyáàlù.
Introduction to Yorùbá Bàtá performance in Èrìn-Òṣun, Nigeria. Featuring Chief Làmídì Àyánkúnlé, master bàtá drummer.

© 2020 Debbie Klein