Alice Echols

Alice Echols
Alice Echols, 2011
Academic background
Alma materMacalester College,
University of Michigan
Academic work
DisciplineHistory
Sub-disciplineContemporary Gender Studies
InstitutionsRutgers University,
University of Southern California

Alice Echols is Professor of History, and the Barbra Streisand Chair of Contemporary Gender Studies, at the University of Southern California.[1][2][3][4] Much of Echols' work explores the transformative period of the "long Sixties" between the 1950s to the mid-1970s.[5] Her research bridges the cultural gap between scholarly history and popular culture. [6]She draws from her own personal history as a disco DJ as a student and maps societal shifts and influence of counterculture on the mainstream with a feminist perspective.[7]

Education

Echols received her bachelor's degree from Macalester College, Minnesota in 1973. She obtained her master's degree and Doctorate at the University of Michigan in 1980 and 1986 respectively.[2]

Career

While in graduate school in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, Echols visited the Rubaiyat, a since-closed[8] predominantly gay bar where the "music just stunk." [9] After persuasion from friends, she got a trial gig and then was hired, beginning her career as a Disco DJ.[10]

Echols has been a professor of history at the University of Southern California since 2004. Since 2011 she has been the Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies, an endowed professorship. Echols was a visiting associate professor at Rutgers University during the 2009–2010 academic year.[2]

Honors and awards

Honor or Award Date
Rackham Dissertation Grant, The University of Michigan 1984
Center for Gender Research Fellowship 1985
University Fellowship, The University of Michigan 1986
The Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award, The University of Michigan 1987
ACLS Grant-in-Aid Fellowship 1990
Gustavus Meyers Outstanding Book Award-Daring to Be Bad 1990-1991
General Education Course Innovation Award 2006-2007
USC Endowed Professorship, Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies and Professor of English, Gender Studies and History 2011-2016
USC Endowed Professorship, Barbra Streisand Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies 2016-
Source:[2]

Publications

Echols authored Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975 (with foreword by Ellen Willis);[11] Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin; Shaky Ground: The Sixties and Its Aftershocks; and Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture.[12] Her book Shortfall: Family Secrets, Financial Collapse, and a Hidden History of American Banking was published by The New Press on October 3, 2017.[13]

She also wrote a chapter on the Women's Liberation Movement in William McConnell's book The Counterculture Movement of the 1960s.[14]

Echols was also interviewed in the 2012 documentary, The Secret Disco Revolution, where she emphasized the political nature of disco and its role in Black, queer, and women's liberation.[15]

In 2026, Echols published, Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic, a publication exploring cross-racial alliances in the freedom movements of the 1960s.[16]

Selected bibliography

  • Black Power, White Heat: From Solidarity Politics to Radical Chic (2026)
  • Shortfall: Family Secrets, Financial Collapse, and a Hidden History of American Banking (2017)
  • Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture (2009)[2]
  • Shaky Ground: The Sixties and its Aftershocks (2002)[2]
  • Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin (1999)[17]
  • Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality By Alice Echols, Amber L. Hollibaugh, Linda Gordon, et al.(1992)
  • Daring to Be Bad: Radical Feminism in America 1967-1975 (with foreword by Ellen Willis) (1990)[11]

References

  1. ^ Charles, Ron (March 8, 2009). "On Campus, Vampires Are Besting the Beats". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Alice Echols [USC Faculty profile]". University of Southern California. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  3. ^ "The '80s are back with 'Transformers'". Today.com. June 29, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  4. ^ "When the Anti-Feminists Roared Back". Democracy Journal. 2017-06-27. Retrieved 2026-03-03.
  5. ^ Enke, A. (2007). Finding the Movement: Sexuality, Contested Space, and Feminist Activism. Duke University Press. pp. 11, 193. ISBN 978-0822340836.
  6. ^ Frank, T. (1997). The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism. University of Chicago Press. pp. 17, 237. ISBN 978-0226259918.
  7. ^ Lawrence, T. "Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture by Alice Echols (Review)". Journal of Popular Music Studies. 23 (2): 245–248 – via JSTOR.
  8. ^ Farwell, Frank (6 January 2012). "A Restaurant Closes, and a Community Mourns". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  9. ^ Massimo, Rick (May 2, 2017). "Staying alive: Historian chronicles the lasting effects of disco on society". WTOP News.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Smallwood, Christine (16 April 2010). "Back Talk: Alice Echols". The Nation. Archived from the original on 3 May 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  11. ^ a b "Lit up by her own blowtorch". Irish Times. March 25, 2000. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
  12. ^ Gavin, James (April 1, 2010). "Dance Dance Revolution". The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2017.
  13. ^ Echols, Alice (3 October 2017). Shortfall. The New Press. ISBN 9781620973042. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  14. ^ McConnell, William S (2004). The counterculture movement of the 1960s. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. OCLC 52819791.
  15. ^ Harvey, Dennis (19 September 2012). "The Secret Disco Revolution". Variety. Variety Media. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  16. ^ Bader, Eleanor J. "Book Review: "Black Power, White Heat"". indypendent.org.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "Dissecting rock 'n' roll's first female superstar". CNN. May 24, 1999. Archived from the original on 16 February 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2010.

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