Her research explores the impact of racial and ethnic identity on performance practices in American and European popular culture. Dr. Hodges Persley completed her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Her current book project entitled Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip Hop Theater and Performance investigates the influence of American articulations of blackness on the performance practices of non- African American Hip Hop artists in theater, conceptual art and dance working in the United States and England. Dr. Hodges Persley is affiliated faculty in American Studies and African and African American Studies at KU. She has published work on Hip-Hop Theater, Jay-Z, Suzan-Lori Parks and Tyler Perry with forthcoming work on Nikki S. Lee, Fredi Washington and Jean Genet.