Alyssa Woods

University of Guelph

Dr. Alyssa Woods is a popular music scholar whose work intersects the areas of music theory, gender and sexuality studies, cultural studies, and religious discourse in hip-hop music. Dr. Woods holds the position of Associate Professor in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph, where she is also a member of the research team and Site Coordinator for the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. Her research involves interdisciplinary approaches to socio-cultural and music-analysis, with recent work focusing on the concept of mythmaking, genealogy, and succession in hip-hop. She is currently working on a book length project, entitled Temptation and the God Flow: Sound and Signification in Pre- and Post-Conversion Hip-hop, as well as a series of collaborative articles on improvisation in the recording studio.