Holy crap, I forgot I even had this blog. I started it the summer before I began my career as a graduate student in Anthropology at Wichita State University in Kansas... Flash forward seven years and I am in my third year as a PhD student at Binghamton University in New York. It's crazy... anthropology has taken me on a wild ride that I hope is just ramping up. It was in part the impetus to get me out of a bad relationship, through anthro I've met some of the finest people and my closest friends. I've learned so much since I wrote those early posts, and the world has changed so much around me.

My goal is to be ABD by the end of this semester. I have to roll up my sleeves and get to work. I thank the few people who have found my summary of Geertz so helpful... I had an email in my inbox yesterday from a lovely soul thanking me, which is what brought me back here. This has me thinking about how I can use this blog as a tool to reach my goals.

So let me start with a brief discussion of my research project: Since the inception of hip-hop in the late 1970s in the Bronx, this musical art form has spread across the planet. This was a slower process at first, through tapes and cds physically moved about the globe, and now at the speed of light with the internet. Hip-hop has taken on a global life through the Global Hip Hop Nation - and for every place it has taken roots, it becomes localized in unique ways. This happens through musical features, such as rhythm, instrumentation, as well as language. I am interested in all of these, but the latter in particular. I plan on researching the motivations behind code-switching multilingual music (hip-hop in particular) in East Africa, and how music is an organizing component of social and political movements.

I should get back to work!!!
-Rachael