British Professor to Lecture on Jazz, American History

Dr. John White, who heads the Department of American Studies at the University of Hull (U.K.), will incorporate jazz and American history when he delivers the 1998 Emmy Parrish Lectures in American Studies Nov. 9-10 at Baylor University.
On Monday, White will speak on "The Other Great Migration: Louis Armstrong and Chicago Style in the 1920s" at 4:30 p.m. in Meadows Recital Hall in the Glennis McCrary Music Building. Tuesday's lecture -- "The Other New Deal: Kansas City, Boss Pendergast and Count Basie" -- will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Meadows Hall.
The lectures, which include samples of jazz music, are free and open to the public. White will also spend the week speaking to several classes at Baylor.
"Many people don't realize that American Studies is extremely popular as an interdisciplinary field in Western Europe, especially in Great Britain and Germany," said Baylor history professor Dr. Thomas Charlton, vice provost for research and acting director of American Studies. "We're very fortunate to have Dr. White here since we're in the process of working out an exchange program with faculty and students at the University of Hull."
White did his undergraduate work in politics and modern history at the University of Manchester. He received his master's degree from the University of Michigan in 1963 and completed his doctorate in American Studies in 1975 at the University of Hull. With interests in the history of the American South, African-Americans and American jazz music, White has published books on Slavery in the American South (1971 Harper & Row), Billie Holiday: Her Life & Times (1987 Universe Books) and Artie Shaw: Non-Stop Flight (1998 University of Hull Press). He has also authored several articles, essays and reviews published in many renowned academic journals, books and periodicals.
The Emmy Parrish Lectures in American Studies fund was established in 1991 by Tom Z. Parrish of Waco to honor his wife, Emmy. The fund, and the lecture series it supports, also recognizes the long friendship and mutual respect between Mr. Parrish and the late E. Hudson Long, Distinguished Professor of English at Baylor, whose life of scholarship inspired the lecture series with the American Studies program.
For more information on the lecture series, contact Charlton at 710-3434 or Dr. James Vardaman at 710-6305.