Lauron Jockwig Kehrer

Dr. Lauron Kehrer is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology in the Irving S. Gilmore School of Music whose research focuses on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality in American popular music, especially hip hop. Before joining the faculty at WMU, Kehrer was an Assistant Professor of Music at the College of William and Mary. They earned their Ph.D. in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, where they also completed an M.A. in Ethnomusicology and a Graduate Certificate from the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies.

Their first book, Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2022), examines the work of Black queer and trans artists in hip hop. Queer Voices in Hip Hop received the 2022 H. Earle Johnson Publication Subvention from the Society for American Music and the 2022 AMS 75 PAYS subvention from the American Musicological Society. It was also listed among Lambda Literary’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Books for November (2022) and included in the New York Public Library’s list of 50 Books to Celebrate 50 Years of Hip-Hop (2023), among others.

Kehrer has published peer-reviewed articles in American Music, the Journal of the Society for American Music, Popular Music and Society, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. They are currently co-editing a volume with Stephanie Jensen-Moulton called “Better Be Good to Me: American Popular Songs as Domestic Violence Narratives” (under contract with University of Michigan Press). At WMU they teach courses in popular music, hip hop, global music cultures, and Western art music.