ABOUT OLIVER WANG

My Writing: Since 1994, I have been writing on pop music, culture, and politics for a variety of publications and outlets including: NPR, Vibe, Wax Poetics, LA Times, Oakland Tribune, Village Voice, SF Bay Guardian, URB, LA Weekly, Scratch, SJ Metro and Minneapolis City Pages, amongst others. I keep an online portfolio of my published work. I also keep a separate site, ChasingChan.com for my writing on Asian American cinema.

In 2003, I edited and co-authored the book, Classic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide.

My Scholarship: I have a PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. My dissertation was a social history of the Filipino American mobile DJ community in the Bay Area and I have since turned this work into a community research project called Legions of Boom. The dissertation is currently being adapted into a manuscript to be published by Duke University Press.

Beginning the fall of 2006, I am now an Assistant Professor of Sociology at CSU-Long Beach, teaching courses in popular culture, social issues and race/class/gender.

A portfolio of my scholarly writing is available here.

My Music: Thanks to my audioblog, Soul-Sides.com, I was able to produce my first official CD compilation in 2006, Soul Sides Vol. 1. The second volume followed in the spring of 2007.

Since 1993, I have been a DJ. I was at KALX FM in Berkeley for 10 years and now co-host a weekly Latin/soul party in Echo Park called Boogaloo[L.A.]

Personal: Since 2006, I've resided in Los Angeles along with my wife Sharon Mizota and daughter Ella. Before moving to L.A., I had lived in the Bay Area (Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco) since 1990.

Misc.: Besides Soul-Sides.com, I also maintain a popular culture + politics blog, Poplicks.com along with Junichi Semitsu. I am also one of the co-founders of the parenting blog, Rice Daddies.

Contact: My general email is: oliverwang AT gmail.com