Debbie Klein

Klein received her B.A. from Brown University and completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of California at Santa Cruz.{{Cite web|title=Ph.D. Recipients|url=https://anthro.ucsc.edu/graduate/phd-recipient-dissertations1.html|access-date=2020-12-29|website=anthro.ucsc.edu}} In Nigeria, Klein studied as an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan and returned to the University of Ibadan as a doctoral student and Fulbright scholar{{Cite web|title=UC Santa Cruz Fulbright Students|url=https://global.ucsc.edu/opportunities/fulbright-program/student-directory.php|access-date=2020-12-29|website=global.ucsc.edu}} affiliated with the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Upon receiving her doctoral degree, she served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California at Davis and visiting assistant professor at Vassar College.{{Cite web|title=Archive from Thursday, September 23, 2004 - Nigerian Drum and Dance Troupe to Perform - News - Info - Vassar College|url=http://info.vassar.edu/news/announcements/2004-2005/040923-nigerian-dance-troup.html|access-date=2020-12-29|website=info.vassar.edu}} In 2005, she joined Gavilan College.{{Cite web|title=Staff Page- Gavilan College|url=https://www.gavilan.edu/staff/bio.php?p=468|access-date=2020-12-29|website=www.gavilan.edu}} She has contributed and written many articles and an ethnography on a range of anthropological subjects within African studies, performance studies, and ethnomusicology. She has created numerous video shorts documenting Yorùbá performance genres.

Some of Klein's notable works include:

; Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global: Artists, Culture Brokers, and Fans (2007){{Cite book|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/Y/bo5471671.html|title=Yorùbá Bàtá Goes Global|publisher=University of Chicago Press }}

Klein's first ethnographic work, funded by the Fulbright and Wenner-Gren Foundations, 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. This book contributes to the field of global studies and analyzes the inequitable power dynamics characterizing transnational collaborations in the world music market.

;A Political Economy of Lifestyle and Aesthetics - Yorùbá Artists Produce and Transform Popular Culture (2012){{Cite journal|last=Klein|date=2012|title=A Political Economy of Lifestyle and Aesthetics: Yorùbá Artists Produce and Transform Popular Culture|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/reseafrilite.43.4.128|journal=Research in African Literatures|volume=43|issue=4|pages=128–146|doi=10.2979/reseafrilite.43.4.128|jstor=10.2979/reseafrilite.43.4.128|s2cid=53021434|url-access=subscription}}

This article pays tribute to the work of Karin Barber by analyzing the political and economic conditions of Yorùbá culture production, illustrating how the aesthetics of Yorùbá popular culture emerge from Yorùbá artists' creative innovations contextualized within the material and cultural conditions of their everyday lives. Filmic portrayals of Yorùbá traditional performance and culture often produce an aesthetics of nostalgia, a longing for a mythic past disconnected from the everyday lives and creativity of artists whose lives and work are being portrayed. The paper analyzes Klein's original ethnographic data from Yorùbá singing, dancing, drumming, and masquerade performances and a Yorùbá film by Tunde Kelani to illustrate the interconnections between everyday life and aesthetic production.

;Fújì - Indigenous and Islamic Popular Music Fusions in Nigeria (2019){{Cite book|last=Klein|first=Debra|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50235133|title="Fuji" in Continuum encyclopedia of popular music of the world|others=Shepherd, John, 1947-|year=2019|isbn=978-0-8264-6321-0|location=London|pages=145–151|oclc=50235133}}

This article draws upon original ethnographic research,{{Cite web|last=Latestnigeriannews|title=How Were, Fuji hook Anthropologist Debra Klein|url=http://www.latestnigeriannews.com/news/307478/|access-date=2020-12-28|website=Latest Nigerian News|language=en}} sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and documents the musical genre of fújì, a fusion of an Islamic-influenced vocal style, Yorùbá praise poetry (oríkì), and driving percussion. Fújì's popularity hit a peak in Nigeria and on the global stage in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and fújì bands continue to record their music and perform throughout Nigeria and across the globe into the twenty-first century. During the course of her research, Klein was hosted by the Department of Performing Arts at the University of Ilorin as a visiting research scholar.

Allow Peace to Reign: Musical Genres of Fújì and Islamic Allegorise Nigerian Unity in the Era of Boko Haram (2020){{Cite journal |last=Klein |first=Debra L. |date=12 October 2020 |title=Allow Peace to Reign: Musical Genres of Fújì and Islamic Allegorise Nigerian Unity in the Era of Boko Haram |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/yearbook-for-traditional-music/article/abs/allow-peace-to-reign-musical-genres-of-fuji-and-islamic-allegorise-nigerian-unity-in-the-era-of-boko-haram/FDC174C5422B3AF6DEF95224E98682C7 |journal=Yearbook for Traditional Music |volume=52 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1017/ytm.2020.5 |s2cid=225125939 |via=ScienceGate|url-access=subscription }}

This article argues that the genres of fújì and Islamic allegorise Nigerian unity—an ideology of tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and equity—while exposing the gap between the aspiration for unity and everyday inequities shaped by gender and morality. The article is based on interviews and performances in Ìlọrin during the 2010s.

;Yorùbá Performance Videos

Klein's video shorts{{Cite web|url=https://www.debbieklein.org/videos.html|title=Videos}} provide documentation of a range of Yorùbá performance genres and events. With the assistance of research collaborators, Rasheed Ayandele, Rafiu Ayantayo, and Jeleel Ojuade, Klein has recorded, edited, and produced these videos as forms of cultural documentation.

How the California Community Colleges Disappeared Over a Million Community College Students (2024){{Cite journal |last=Klein |first=Debbie |date=September 19, 2024 |title=How the Austerity Agenda Disappeared Over a Million California Community College Students: A Faculty Perspective |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01614681241286599 |journal=Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education |volume=126 |issue=6–7 |pages=234–251 |doi=10.1177/01614681241286599 |via=Sage Journals|url-access=subscription }}

This groundbreaking article argues that edu-philanthropist foundations have created decades of policy designed to shrink and disinvest from California's community colleges. The article is based on Klein's research and leadership experience within local and statewide faculty organizations, including participation in California state governance and legislative processes. Klein calls for the formation of a coalition that will educate the public about the 50-plus-year neoliberal project to defund public education; expose the philanthrocapitalist takeover of community colleges; and advocate for reinvestment in the millions of students who need the community colleges the most.

Getting involved in anti-apartheid and women's rights movements in the 1980s and 90s, Klein learned the tools and power of activism and advocacy. Her advocacy for public education and educators began with her work as an organizer within her graduate student and faculty unions. She went on to serve as president of the faculty union and senate of Gavilan College. She has advocated for part-time faculty equity,{{Cite web|title=COMMENTARY: Calbright funds would be better spent on health benefits for part-time community college faculty|url=https://edsource.org/2020/calbright-funds-would-be-better-spent-on-health-benefits-for-part-time-community-college-faculty/628975|access-date=2020-12-28|website=EdSource|language=en}} a unified (one-tiered) faculty model,{{Cite news |last=Klein |first=Debbie |date=April 27, 2024 |title=Undoing overreliance on part-time faculty could reverse decline of California Community Colleges |url=https://edsource.org/2024/undoing-overreliance-on-part-time-faculty-could-reverse-decline-of-california-community-colleges/710803 |access-date=April 27, 2024 |work=EdSource |pages=1–6}} and served on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force of the California Community Colleges,{{Cite web |title=Diversity, Equity and Inclusion {{!}} California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office |url=https://www.cccco.edu/-/media/CCCCO-Website/docs/report/cccco-dei-report-a11y.pdf |access-date=2020-12-29 |website=www.cccco.edu}} which worked to transform the California Community Colleges into a more equitable system for its students and employees. Klein served as president of the statewide Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, during which she advocated for increased investment in public education as a means for the residents of California to achieve economic and social justice.

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• {{official website|https://www.debbieklein.org/}}

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Category:American anthropologists

Category:American women anthropologists

Category:Gavilan College faculty

Category:Brown University alumni

Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni

Category:University of Ibadan alumni

Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American women

Category:Academic staff of the University of Ilorin