Ethnomusicologist Gregory Barz to Present "Music, HIV/AIDS, and Hip Hop in Africa" for the 2008 Becket Lecture Friday, October 17, 4:00 p.m., Petteruti Lounge, Faunce House Free and open to the public. See campus map for directions. Gregory Barz, associate professor of ethnomusicology at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, will present the 2008 Becket Lecture, titled "Music, HIV/AIDS, and Hip Hop in Africa: The Responsibilities of Scholarship." The lectureship is funded by the generous support of the Thomas Becket Association of alumni and parents. Barz is the producer of the 2008 Grammy-nominated album Singing for Life: Songs of Hope, Healing, and HIV/AIDS in Uganda, released by Smithsonian Folkways. This acclaimed collection draws on of the music of HIV+ women's groups, which he recorded while conducting fieldwork in East Africa. In addition to this study, Barz has held a senior research fellowship with the Fulbright African AIDS Research Program for work in Uganda. His other projects include documenting the role of music used in Rwandan radio broadcasts leading up to the 1990s genocide, and examining the role of hip hop in HIV/AIDS outreach efforts in Uganda. Barz has been a member of Vanderbilt's faculty for the past ten years. In addition to his position at the Blair School of Music, Barz holds joint appointments in Vanderbilt's Department of Anthropology and the Divinity School. Widely published, he has given lectures and scholarly papers throughout the United States, Africa, Great Britain, and Canada. He is the ethnomusicology editor for New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and is a member of the Society for Ethnomusicology, American Musicological Society, African Studies Association, and the American Anthropology Association. Barz has taught classes at University of Chicago and Brown University, from which he received his doctorate in 1997, and had been a member of the faculties of the University of Dar Es Salaam Tanzania (East Africa), University of Alberta (Edmonton), and Ohio State University. To learn more about Gregory Barz, visit his website. The Brown-RISD Roman Catholic Community organizes the Becket Lecture each year.