Joel Dinerstein

Joel Dinerstein is Professor of English at Tulane University in New Orleans and holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas. He is the author of Swinging the Machine (2003), a theory of early jazz and industrialization, American Cool (2014), and The Origins of Cool in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 2017), a cultural history of jazz, film, urban cool, existentialism, and African-American literature. He teaches classes on jazz, blues, and literature, and has published written many articles about New Orleans music and culture. For ten years, he was a jazz DJ on WWOZ-FM in New Orleans, the city's global jazz and heritage station. He has served as a consultant for jazz and popular music for Putumayo Records, HBO's Boardwalk Empire, and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).