ABOUT

Manchester Metropolitan University,

Manchester, UK

Founding Member

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Kirsty is the Interim Deputy Head of the School of Digital Arts (SODA), a Professor in Screen Studies; Research and Knowledge Exchange Lead; and Research Degrees Coordinator.

An academic with over 20 years research, teaching and leadership experience, she has an interdisciplinary research profile encompassing screen studies, celebrity studies, the audio visual mediation of popular music and gender representation in popular culture.

She is also Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival, a Culture Forum North Steering Group member and a Digital City Festival Advisory Board member.

Middle Tennessee State University,

Murfreesboro, TN

Founding Member

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Mike Alleyne (Ph.D.) has served as a Full Professor in the Department of Recording

Industry at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and is also a Visiting Professor at

the Pop Akademie in Mannheim, Germany.

He is the co-editor of the award-winning anthology Analyzing Recorded Music

(2023), recognized by the Society for Music Theory (SMT) as an Outstanding Multi-Author

 

Publication (https://societymusictheory.org/announcement/2023-smt-publication-awards-

2023-11). In 2025, Alleyne will publish Black British Music in America 1967-2000:

 

Atlantic Crossover (Ashgate) and The Routledge Handbook to the Popular Music Cover

Song: Vivid Versions and Musical Subjectivities, co-edited by Lori Burns.

Recent and forthcoming publications include the article, “‘Businessmen, they

drink my wine’: Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland Album” in the American Music

Perspectives journal (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2024), and chapters in the anthologies, Popular

Music Autobiographies (2024) and This is Me: Interrogating the Female Pop Star

Documentary (2025), both being published by Bloomsbury.

He also wrote The Essential Hendrix (2020) and The Encyclopedia of Reggae

(2012), and was a contributing editor of Rhythm Revolution (2015), and co-editor of

Prince and Popular Music (2020).

Born in London, England, he has lectured and presented conference papers

internationally, publishing numerous book chapters and articles. His journal and

periodical publications include Popular Music & Society, Rock Music Studies, the

Journal on the Art of Record Production, the award-winning Grove Dictionary of

American Music, Popular Music History, Ethnomusicology Forum, the Journal of

Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Social and Economic Studies, Small Axe,

Billboard magazine, and American Music Perspectives. He is an Emeritus Editor of

the online SAGE Business Case Series in Music Industry.

His book chapter contributions appear in The Cambridge Companion to

the Electric Guitar (2024), The Beatles and Humour (2023), The Bloomsbury

Handbook of Music Production (2020), Rihanna: Barbados World-Gurl in Global

Popular Culture (2015), Sound and Music in Film and Visual Media: An Overview

(2009), Globalization, Diaspora & Caribbean Popular Culture (2005), Bob Marley:

The Man & His Music (2003), and Culture and Mass Communication in the

Caribbean (2001), among other works. Prof. Alleyne contributed liner notes and

project advice to the groundbreaking 9-CD box set, the Smithsonian Anthology of

Hip-Hop and Rap (2021).

Alleyne was also an expert witness for the estate of legendary singer Marvin

Gaye in the widely publicized “Blurred Lines” copyright infringement case, decided

 

in favor of the estate in 2015. His notable interviewees include the world-renowned

Chic producer/musician/songwriter Nile Rodgers, Public Enemy rap icon Chuck D,

Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, singer/songwriters Phil Collins and Billy Ocean,

and Caribbean music legend Eddy Grant.

In 2017, he co-organized the first popular music conference entirely

dedicated to the life and career of the artist Prince, and the successful event took

place at the University of Salford in Manchester, England. He also taught a

Masterclass at Salford in 2018 on copyright infringement issues in popular music.

His involvement with popular music also includes roles as a writer and publisher

member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers) and

PRS (Performing Right Society).

Music Historian

Minneapolis, MN

Founding Member

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Kristen Zschomler researches, writes, and leads tours about places associated with Prince, the development of “The Minneapolis Sound”, and music history in the Twin Cities. Kristen’s background as a historian and archaeologist plays into her professional work, and saw her leading the charge to have two Prince places recognized as historically significant through the National Register of Historic Places, preserving his legacy for future generations. Her current research interest focuses on Prince and dance, specifically his inspiration from and incorporation of ballet into his dance aesthetic.

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, MN

Current Member

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Crystal N. Wise is an assistant professor in literacy education at the University of Minnesota. Her work broadly focuses on early literacy development as well as historical and contemporary language and literacy practices of African Americans. In her current research on Prince, she explores his lyrics, artistry, and life as liberation and resistance. 

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Northumbria University

Current Member

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Casci Ritchie is a fashion and cultural historian, writer and lecturer who specialises in Prince, fashion in film and music, consumption, identities, and fandom. She is a third PhD candidate at Northumbria University, her thesis is titled ‘Fashioning the Love Symbol: The design, fan cultures and consumption of Prince Rogers Nelson’. 
 

Her book On His Royal Badness: The Life and Legacy of Prince’s Fashion was published in 2021 and she has also published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals including Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, Queer Studies in Media and most recently Journal for Asia-Pacific Pop Culture.

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