John F. Szwed, Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at Columbia University, has been appointed Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. An anthropologist and jazz scholar, Dr. Szwed's publications range from anthropological studies of Newfoundland and the West Indies to record liner notes and jazz journalism. Dr. Szwed has authored or edited 15 books, including Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (1997), Jazz 101 (2000), So What: The Life of Miles Davis (2002), and Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World (2010). Doctor Jazz, a book included with the CD set, Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings by Alan Lomax, was awarded a Grammy in 2005.

Dr. Szwed is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Jazz Studies Online, perhaps the most widely-referenced portal on the Web for jazz research. Most recently, JSO has begun a two-year project to build and test a powerful database tool for research on the history of jazz with the participation of a network of noted jazz scholars. The project has received generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  Dr. Szwed has also received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dr. Szwed has appeared in a number of documentaries and television specials. From 1980 to 1982 he was the music commentator on Terry Gross' Fresh Air on NPR, and as a journalist, Dr. Szwed has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Village Voice, Wire, and many other publications in the US and Europe. He is currently General Editor of the Jazz Perspectives Book Series for The University of Michigan Press.
 
Before he joined Columbia in 2008, Dr. Szwed was the John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies, and Film Studies for 26 years. He has also taught at Temple University, Lehigh University, New York University, and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was co-director of the Center for Urban Ethnography with Erving Goffman and Dell Hymes, and Chair of the Department of Folklore and Folklife. He was alsoLouis Armstrong Visiting Professor of Jazz Studies at Columbia  in 2003-04 and 2005-2007.

Columbia University and the Center for Jazz Studies are very excited to welcome Dr. Szwed in his new position.  Professor George E. Lewis, the outgoing director of the Center, returns to full-time teaching in composition and musicology at Columbia with our deepest gratitude for the outstanding contributions that he has made to the Center.