Jeffrey Melnick is associate professor of American Studies at Babson College, specializing in teaching African American Studies, popular culture, and American Cultural History. He has published four books, the first of which (A Right to Sing the Blues: African Americans, Jews, and American Popular Song) was a Booklist Editors' Choice selection for 1999.   Dr. Melnick will soon publish a co-written book, Immigration and American Popular Culture, as part of a new series for NYU Press.

He has also written Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South and is co-editor of American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century, and Race and the Modern Artist (Oxford University Press, 2003).  Dr. Melnick currently serves on the editorial collective of the Journal of Popular Music Studies and has been named co-editor for a series of books on American popular music to be published by the University of Massachusetts Press.  His research interests include immigration to the United States, Popular culture, and Black-Jewish relations.

Areas of expertise include: American Studies, Black-Jewish Relations, Ethnic Culture and Popular Music.