Professor Donald Tibbs has received an award from the Drexel University Office of the Provost that will support a new course and lecture series on Hip Hop and the American Constitution.

The course, to be offered in Spring 2012, will examine the intersection of hip hop and varied aspects of the law, including criminal law, constitutional law, intellectual property law and family law.

The course will include a lecture series featuring prominent legal and social science scholars from some of the nation’s leading universities. The guest lecturers are:

• Princeton University Professor Imani Perry, author of "Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop" 
• George Washington University Professor Paul Butler, author of "Let’s Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice" 
• Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University Professor Bret Asbury, author of "Anti-Snitching Norms and Loyalty" 
• University of West Virginia College of Law Professor andré douglas pond cummings, author of "The Evolution of Street Knowledge: Hip Hop’s Influence on Law and Culture" 
• Hofstra School of Law Professor Akilah Falomi, author of "From Habermas to ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin:’ Hip Hop, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the Black Public Sphere" 
• University of Massachusetts—Dartmouth Professor Tryon Woods, author of "Hip Hop and the Post-Racial Legal Un-Conscious" 
• American University Washington College of Law Professor Pamela Bridgewater, author of: "Mama’s Babies and Papa’s Maybe: The Gold-digger Fatherhood Narrative in Hip Hop Culture" 
• Albany Law School Professor Anthony Farley, author of "Sarah Palin – The Last Black President"

Tibbs, the author of "From Black Power to Hip Hop: Discussing Anti-Blackness, Policing, and the Fourth Amendment Through the ‘War On’ Paradigm," will give a featured lecture in addition to leading the course.

The course and lecture series will culminate in a book, featuring contributions from the guest lecturers, which Tibbs and cummings will edit.