Jerome Dotson is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and a graduate of Morehouse College. He holds a Ph.D. in U.S. history and an M.A. in African American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research and teaching interests focus on the African American history, Southern food ways, hip hop, and folklore. Currently, he is working on a book-length manuscript, which is tentatively titled Contested Consumption: Race, Eating and Body Politics, 1830-1990. This work explores the cultural, social, and political significance of black American food choice through an interrogation of the metonymic relationship between the black body and pork from slavery through 1990s Hip Hop.