Dr. Tricia Rose

Born and raised in Harlem and the Bronx in New York City, Professor Tricia Rose earned a B.A. in Sociology at Yale and a Ph.D. in American Studies at Brown University.

Tricia has served in faculty positions at NYU and UC Santa Cruz. In 2006, she assumed a faculty position at Brown University. Tricia is currently the Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and an Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives.

Tricia has received numerous scholarly fellowships including from the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Mellon Foundation and the American Association of University Women.

“Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America,” published in 1994, is widely recognized as the pioneering analysis of hip hop, the work that spawned an entirely new - and now ubiquitous - field of study.

In 2003, Tricia published a unique, powerful oral narrative history of black women's sexuality and sexual life stories, called “Longing To Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy.”

Tricia returned to the subject of hip hop in 2008 to examine the significance of the debates over the value of hip hop - culturally and politically - with “The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop-And Why It Matters.”

Tricia’s new book, “Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives–And How We Break Free” is an essential new account of what systemic racism actually is, how it works, and how we can break free. Release date: March 5, 2024.

Her latest project, How Systemic Racism Works Project, is a multi-platform exploration of systemic racism in America today. The project shines a clarifying spotlight on how racism in post-civil-rights America works as a system of interconnected, mutually reinforcing policies and practices. The How Systemic Racism Works Project includes Tricia’s new book, “Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives–And How We Break Free” and an interactive website experience funded by the Mellon Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Tricia is well-known for her accessible, eye-opening lectures and for facilitating lively and thoughtful Q&A discussions with a range of audiences, including students, community and civic organizations and corporate leadership.

She has appeared on PBS, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and other national and local media outlets. Tricia was also a co-producer and co-host with Cornel West for The Tightrope Podcast, a pandemic podcast on race, love and justice.