Joel Dinerstein

Joel Dinerstein is the author of several works on the history of cool, including The Origins of Cool in Postwar America (University of Chicago, May 2017), Coach: A Study of New York Cool (Rizzoli 2016), and American Cool (2014). He was the co-curator of American Cool (2014), an acclaimed photography and cultural history exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian based on his own research and theories. He is also the author of an award-winning cultural history of jazz and industrialization, Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African-American Culture (2003), as well as several articles on American identity and popular culture (e.g., film noir, jazz, literature, technology, sports, rock-and-roll).  He has served as a consultant for popular music and jazz for Putumayo Records, HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). He has received the Student Body Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and teaches courses at the intersection of modernism, popular culture, African-American Studies, and contemporary literature.  He was a jazz DJ for seven years on WWOZ-FM in New Orleans and also teaches courses on blues, jazz, and New Orleans musical culture. He has written several insider articles about New Orleans second-line culture as a member of the Prince of Wales club. He has a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas (Austin) and was educated exclusively at public schools.