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Kai West is an interdisciplinary scholar and multi-instrumentalist whose research and teaching interests encompass popular music, musical instrument studies, critical race theory, feminist theory, and media studies. Currently, he is engaged in a book project that examines electric guitar culture from twenty-first century perspectives, focusing on technology, performance, and media. His work details a decades-long struggle with regression and reinvention, analyzing how these factors shape the contemporary culture of the instrument while addressing the intertwining of technological developments, performance practices, and social politics. Kai has published original research in the Journal of the American Musicological Society and has presented numerous papers at meetings of the American Musicological Society, the American Music conference, and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music. In addition to his scholarly pursuits, he is a professional musician who creates and releases experimental ambient music using guitars, effects pedals, synthesizers, and tape.
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science