Nicholas L. Baham, III , Ph.D. Faculty Profile

Photo of Nicholas Baham, III

Nicholas  L.   Baham, III , Ph.D.

Full Professor

Department of Ethnic Studies

Dr. Nicholas L. Baham III is a Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay and teaches courses in Black Studies and Genders & Sexualities in Communities of Color.  Dr. Baham is a San Francisco native. He attended college at the University of Chicago where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science; earned his Master’s degree in Anthropology at Stanford University; and received his Ph.D. in Anthropology at Indiana University, Bloomington. His academic research focuses on African American religious experience, sexuality, and artistic expression. His book, The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice was published in 2015 by McFarland Press. He has a growing body of published journal articles and book chapters on the Coltrane Church, African American musical and religious expression, James Baldwin, and critical media literacy including “I Know You Know: Esperanza Spalding’s Hybrid, Intertextual, Multilingual, Relevant Jazz Aesthetic,”  “Radio Free Coltrane: Free Jazz Radio as Revolutionary Practicein Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, and a co-authored chapter entitled “The New American Authoritarianism: How the Corporate Media Normalized Fascism in 2016” published in Project Censored 2018. As part of his growing academic interest in Afrofuturism, Dr. Baham served as an editor for The Journal of Future Studies special 2019 edition entitled “When Is Wakanda? Afrofuturism and Dark Speculative Futurity.” He has presented his work nationally and internationally at the American University in Paris, Universite Paul-Valery in Montpellier, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Tuskegee, and Suffolk University. Dr. Baham is a co-host for the Along the Line podcast for Project Censored, and has appeared on BET, local KPOO and KPFA radio, Osterreichischer Rundfunk and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Pitchfork ezine, Canada’s SexTV and in ColorLines and Esquire magazines. He is also a board member for the Media Freedom Foundation for Project Censored. He has a blog of African American politics and culture called The Upper Room at nicholasbaham.blogspot.com. At California State University East Bay, Dr. Baham teaches courses on Afrofuturism, Jazz Cultures, Black Sexualities, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and Racialized Masculinities. Among his many faculty governance responsibilities, Dr. Baham served two terms as Chapter President for the California Faculty Association and is currently serving as campus Diversity Equity Liaison Officer and chair of the Faculty Diversity and Equity Committee.

 

 

 

Jazz and Community; James Baldwin Studies; Alternative Sexualities and African American Community; Alternative Spirituality and African American Community. 

  • B.A. (Political Science) 1987, University of Chicago
  • M.A. (Anthropology) 1991, Stanford University
  • Ph.D. (Anthropology) 2001 Indiana University, Bloomington
Summer Session 2024
Course #SecCourse TitleDaysFromToLocationCampus
ES 12101The People's History IIARRWEB-ASYNCHOnline Campus
ES 12102The People's History IIARRWEB-ASYNCHOnline Campus
ES 34701Black SexualitiesARRWEB-ASYNCHOnline Campus

BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS

The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice - 2015

http://www.amazon.com/Coltrane-Church-Apostles-Agents-Justice/dp/0786494964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420621797&sr=8-1&keywords=nicholas+baham

 

 

I Know You Know: Esperanza Spalding’s Hybrid, Inter-textual, Multilingual, Relevant New Jazz Aesthetic” - 2013

Book Chapter for Americana: Readings in Popular Culture, Third Edition

Ed. Leslie Wilson, Press Americana & Amazon Digital Services, Inc. July 20, 2013

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E2T16R6

 

 

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

I Know You Know: Esperanza Spalding’s Hybrid, Inter-textual, Multilingual, Relevant New Jazz Aesthetic” - 2012

Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture Vol. 11 Issue 2 Fall 2012

http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2012/baham.htm

 

“Students for a Quality Education” - 2012

Race, Poverty, and the Environment Vol. 19, No. 1 – 2012

http://urbanhabitat.org/19-1/baham

 

God and Government in the Ghetto: The Politics of Church-State Collaboration in Black America - 2011

Book Review - Journal of the American Academy of Religion 2011 http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/79/4/1065.short?rss=1

 

"Radio Free Coltrane" - 2006

                        Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture Volume 5 Issue 2 Fall 2006

                        http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2006/baham.htm

 

"Trickle Down Christianity: How the Socially Regressive Homophobic Agenda of Karl Rove and the Christian Right Wing Army Undermined Black Political Aspirations in the election of 2004" - 2005

California State University East Bay Department of Ethnic Studies On-Line        

Journal Vol. I Issue 2 Spring 2005

http://class.csueastbay.edu/ethnicstudies/jes2/jes-2-toc.html

 

"39 Lashes: Confessions of an African American Intellectual" - 2004

California State University East Bay Department of Ethnic Studies On-Line Journal

Vol. I Issue 1 Spring 2004

 

American Ethnologist - 1996

Vol. 26. No. 2, 1998 Review of Blacked Out: Dilemmas of Race, Identity, and Success at Capital High by Signithia Fordham University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1996.

 

 

BLOGS

The Upper Room blog at nicholasbaham.blogspot.com

Nicholas Baham’s blog of African American Culture and Politics is a sketchbook of ideas being developed for longer academic articles and presentations and a space for greater interaction with the community.

 

  • “Across 110th St: A Harlem Photo Essay”  August 17, 2013

http://nicholasbaham.blogspot.com/2013/08/across-110th-st-harlem-photo-essay.html

 

  • “From Birth of a Nation to Stand Your Ground: Trayvon Martin and the New Era of Lynching” July 14, 2013

http://nicholasbaham.blogspot.com/2013/07/from-birth-of-nation-to-stand-your.html

 

  • “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey: Django Unchained and the Cinematic Debut of African American Slave Insurrectionist Agency January 6, 2013

http://nicholasbaham.blogspot.com/2013/01/dont-call-me-nigger-whitey-django.html

 

  • “Why Esperanza Spalding Matters” July 6, 2012

http://nicholasbaham.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-esperanza-spalding-matters.html

 

  • "Trickle Down Christianity: How the Socially Regressive Homophobic Agenda of Karl Rove and the Christian Right Wing Army Undermined Black Political Aspirations in the election of 2004"
http://nicholasbaham.blogspot.com/2012/08/trickle-down-christianity.html