February 27, 2026 | 3:30PM
Fulton Recital Hall, Goodspeed Hall, 4th floor
Wild Tongue: A Borderlands Mixtape
Jonathan Leal
Assistant Professor of English, University of Southern California
About Jonathan Leal
Jonathan Leal is a scholar, educator, and musician born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley. Based in Los Angeles, Leal earned an interdisciplinary PhD in Modern Thought & Literature from Stanford University and is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Dreams in Double Time: On Race, Freedom, and Bebop (Duke University Press, 2023) and the co-editor of Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision (Bloomsbury, 2021). He is also the co-creator of numerous musical projects, including releases featured in Pitchfork, Latino USA, Texas Highways, Democracy Now, and elsewhere. Leal’s criticism and scholarship have appeared in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, ASAP/Journal, Los Angeles Times, Air/Light Magazine, The Rumpus, and The Boston Globe, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle, where he is Co-Chair of Criticism. His next book, Wild Tongue: A Borderlands Mixtape, is forthcoming with Duke University Press.