Convocation: Anthony DeCurtis

Anthony DeCurtis is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where his work has appeared for more than thirty years.  He has also written for The New York Times, Relix and other publications as a respected author and music critic.  DeCurtis is the author of In Other Words: Artists Talk About Life and Work and Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music and Other Matters.  He is editor of Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture and Blues & Chaos: The Music Writing of Robert Palmer, and he co-edited the third editions of the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll and the Rolling Stone Album Guide.  DeCurtis holds a PhD in American literature from Indiana University.  He helped design the arts-and-culture curriculum at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism and currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Pennsylvania.  A frequent member of the judging panel for the annual Independent Music Awards, DeCurtis has also appeared as a commentator on MTV, VH1, the Today Show and many other news and entertainment programs.  The title of his presentation is “The Music of Social Protest.”