Kyra Gaunt


Kyra Danielle Gaunt is an American ethnomusicologist, social media researcher, social justice activist, and professor at the University of Albany. Gaunt's research focuses on the critical study and hidden musicianship in black girls' musical play at the intersections of race, gender, and the body in the age of hip-hop. Her current research focuses on the unintended consequences of gender, race, and technology from YouTube to Wikipedia. She is a native of Rockville, Maryland.

Education

Gaunt attended the School of Music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from 1988-1997, where she earned a Ph.D. in Musicology with a specialization in ethnomusicology. She also studied classical voice with operatic tenor George Shirley. She also holds a master's and associate degree in voice from SUNY Binghamton and The American University, respectively.

Career

Gaunt began working in higher education as a professor of hip-hop at the University of Virginia in 1996. She held appointments at NYU, Baruch College and Hunter College in the CUNY system, and is currently a professor at The University at Albany-SUNY, where she teaches classes on topics such as music, gender sexuality, and other topics in her research area. Gaunt has spoken about her research and the concepts that surround it in multiple platforms that include a 2018 appearance at Harvard Business School's Gender and Work Symposium, where she spoke about her research Race, Work and Leadership: Learning from and about Black experience. Her research focuses on the musical play of black girls at the "intersections of race, gender, and the body in the age of hip-hop" and the "critical study of the unintended consequences of race, gender, and technology from YouTube to Wikipedia."
According to Gaunt, double-dutch was innovated by young African American girls in urban areas after World War II. In her book, The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop, Gaunt invites readers to "broaden their interpretation of black musical experience" to include race, gender and body, and the experience of double dutch can be a path to understanding hip hop culture through a black girl's perspective. Gaunt wrote that double-dutch was an essential part of black girl culture in the U.S.: "If double-dutch dies in neighborhoods, that's bad news for black culture". As the sport became incorporated into public schools, "casual interest in neighborhoods" saw a decline.
Gaunt also compares the sport of double dutch to hip hop, citing "hip and pelvic thrusts" and "rhythmic complexity" as elements that are vital to both. She emphasizes double-dutch is a way of "experiencing black feminism" through its connection to staying on time to keep the movements going.
Gaunt is also a music artist she has performed live at many different campuses around the country. She typically performs yearly at University of Albany's Theater and Arts Center. Gaunt has a variety of songs and also has an album.

Awards, honors, and projects

In 2007 Kyra Gaunt published The Games Black Girls Play: Learning the Ropes from Double-Dutch to Hip-Hop. Her book was awarded the Alan Merriam prize presented by the society for Ethnomusicology. It was also nominated as a pen/beyond margins book award finalist. It inspired a work by fellow TED Fellow Camille A. Brown, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play, which was nominated for a 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production. Among other significant publications, her peer-reviewed articles appear in Musical Quarterly, Parcours anthropologiques, and The Journal for Popular Music Studies.
In 2009 Gaunt was honored as one of the inaugural TED Fellows. Gaunt spoke at the 2015 TEDx East in New York City about the challenges and misconceptions behind the net worth and value of young black and African American girls who twerk on YouTube. In 2018, Kyra appeared in a video for the TED Design series Small Thing, Big Idea, where she used her research to discuss how the jump rope got its rhythm.
Gaunt was featured in a short documentary ad by Nokia that showed the impact of TED Fellows on others. Gaunt went on a mission helping students throughout the world. She has an annual project called one laptop per child which was designed to encourage learning in developing countries by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. Dr. Gaunt's scholarship has been funded by the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Ford Foundation. Her exploration centers around the basic examination and concealed musicianship in dark young ladies' melodic play at the crossing points of race, sexual orientation, and the body in the time of hip-bounce.
In 2019, Gaunt was invited to speak at the university of Miami to present her research on the racial oppression and sexploitation of young, black girls who appear in YouTube videos

Publications

Gaunt has published many works during her career. Her publications include:

Books