Dr. Shawn Trenell O’Neal earned the distinction of being awarded the first dissertation completion fellowship from the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS) at CU Boulder (2022-2023). He is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies, in addition to being a renowned DJ and audio producer. Dr. O'Neal is also a founding member and faculty fellow in Lyripeutics Storytelling: Remixing Our Reality Through Hip Hop Education with the Renée Crown Wellness Institute. His research includes African American studies, Africana studies, musicology, ethnomusicology, queer and trans of color critique, and women of color feminisms. Dr. O'Neal developed an interdisciplinary and intersectional theoretical concept called Audio Intersectionality, upon which he based his dissertation. Audio Intersectionality are interdisciplinary herstories and histories, active responses, self-narratives, self-defenses, traumas, and celebrations, regarding race, gender, and sexuality communicated through sound, music, and performance. The dissertation title is "Audio Intersectionality: Self-Identification Within the Processes of Interdisciplinary Explorations in Sound, Music, and Performance." Dr. O’Neal’s work appears in Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism (2020).
