Donna P. Hope is a Professor and Socio-Cultural Analyst in the Institute of Caribbean Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in Jamaica.
Over the last two decades, Professor Hope’s research and analysis on popular culture, gender, culture and music has resulted in over forty publications, including four books. Inna di Dancehall, Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica (2006); Man Vibes: Masculinities in the Jamaican Dancehall (2010); International Reggae: Current and Future Trends in Jamaican Popular Music (2013); and Reggae from Yaad: Traditional and Emerging Themes in Jamaican Popular Music (2015). She has engaged in multiple academic and popular discussions on Caribbean popular culture and music, gender and creative industries, in the print and electronic media in the USA, UK, Europe, Latin and South America, and the Caribbean.
A former Director of the Institute of Caribbean Studies from 2012-2015, Professor Hope was the Program Chair of the inaugural Global Reggae Conference in 2008 and organized and chaired three International Reggae Conferences at the University of the West Indies, Mona in 2010, 2013 and 2015.
Her key areas of research include popular culture and music, dancehall culture, youth development, black masculinities, black popular culture, cultural/creative industries, media and communication, gender, identity, and power.
Professor Hope’s most recent research mapped best practices in the cultural/creative industries, with specific focus on Jamaica. During her recently-completed Research Fellowship from the University of the West Indies, she pursued research in Europe, Latin and South America on the global spread of Jamaican popular culture and its creation of glocal identity-spaces under the title Dancehall’s Scattered Children.
Her edited collection ReggaeStories: Jamaican Musical Legends and Cultural Legacies is forthcoming (2018) from the University of the West Indies Press.
FEATURED BOOKS
Hope, Donna P. (ed.). Reggae From Yaad: Traditional and Emerging Themes in Popular Music. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, February 2015, 231pp.
Hope, Donna P. (ed.). International Reggae: Current and Future Trends in Popular Music. Kingston: Pelican Publishers, 2013. 346pp.
Hope, Donna P. Man Vibes: Masculinities in the Jamaican Dancehall. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, May 2010, 267pp.
Hope, Donna P. Inna di Dancehall: Popular Culture and the Politics of Identity in Jamaica. Kingston, Jamaica: The University of the West Indies Press, 2006. 224pp.