John Szwed

John F. Szwed (born 1936) is the John M. Musser Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, African American Studies and Film Studies at Yale University and an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar in the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University, where he previously served as the Center's Director and Professor of Music and Jazz Studies. Szwed is the author of many books on jazz and American music, including studies of Sun Ra, Miles Davis, Jelly Roll Morton, Alan Lomax and Billie Holiday.

Szwed received a B.S. in business and economics from Marietta College in 1958. He also studied trombone and music theory and played professionally for twelve years; as an undergraduate, he worked in a steel mill and performed at roadhouses, country clubs, college dances and speakeasies in Ohio and West Virginia. Thereafter, he enrolled at Ohio State University, where he earned a second bachelor's degree in communications in 1959, an M.A. in communications in 1960 and a Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology in 1965. His graduate school adviser was anthropology pioneer Erika Bourguignon, who encouraged him to bring to his work what he already knew and experienced. His work as an anthropologist and folklorist includes field studies in Newfoundland, the Georgia Sea Islands, and Trinidad.

From 1982 to 2008, Szwed was John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies and Film Studies at Yale University. Szwed was appointed term Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University in 2008, a position he held through 2014. From 2011 to 2014, he was Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. He has also taught at New York University and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was Director of the Center for Urban Ethnography and Chair of the Department of Folklore. Szwed is married to Marilyn Anderson Szwed and lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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