Ep. 156: Langston Collin Wilkins

Langston Collin Wilkins, PhD is folklorist, ethnomusicologist, and writer based in Madison, WI. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Folklore and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Wilkins is the author of Welcome to Houston: Hip Hop Heritage in Hustle Town, which was released through the University of Illinois Press in August of 2023. His research interests include African American folklife, African American music, urban folklore, car culture and public folklore. Dr. Wilkins is a native of Houston, Texas and received his PhD from Indiana University’s Department of Folklore & Ethnomusicology in 2016. He also holds a master’s degree in African American and African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Wilkins’ work has also appeared in the Journal of Folklore Research, The Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, and several other publications. From 2019-2022, Dr. Wilkins served as the Director of the Center for Washington Cultural Traditions, a public program that seeks to document and preserve the traditional culture of Washington state. Prior to this, he served the state of Tennessee though positions at the Tennessee Arts Commission and Humanities Tennessee. Dr. Wilkins is currently an executive board member of the American Folklore Society.

Langston Collin Wilkins’s Substack newsletter: https://langstonwilkins.substack.com

Purchase Welcome 2 Houston: Hip Hop Heritage in Hustle Town: https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p087295

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