Kembrew McLeod, PhD

Department Chair
Professor
Biography

Office Hours

 Office hours are by appointment, and please email Professor McLeod to set up a meeting.

 

Get to know Kembrew

Kembrew McLeod is a Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa and an independent documentary producer.

A prolific author and filmmaker, he has written and produced several books and documentaries that focus on popular music, independent media and copyright law. He co-produced the documentary Copyright Criminals, which premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and aired in 2010 on PBS’s Emmy Award-winning documentary series, Independent Lens.

His first documentary, Money For Nothing, was programmed at the 2002 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2002 New England Film and Video Festival, where it received the Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness. McLeod’s second documentary, Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property, was distributed by the Media Education Foundation—where he also worked as an educational documentary producer. Freedom of Expression® serves as a companion to his book of the same name, which won the American Library Association’s Oboler book award for “best scholarship in the area of intellectual freedom” in 2006.

Most recently, McLeod co-authored the book Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling and the anthology Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage and Copyright Law, both published by Duke University Press in 2011. His fifth book, Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World, will be published by New York University Press on April 1, 2013.

McLeod’s music and cultural criticism have appeared in Rolling Stone, SPIN, MOJO, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Village Voice, and The New Rolling Stone Album Guide.

 

Awards

  • Michael J. Brody Award, awarded by University of Iowa, 2020
  • Best of the Best Books You Should Know About designation for Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World, awarded by American Association of University Presses, 2015
  • Public Scholar Fellowship, awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities, 2015
  • Faculty Scholar Award, awarded by University of Iowa, 2007-2010
  • Oboler Award for Best Published Scholarship in the Area of Intellectual Freedom, awarded by American Library Association, 2006
  • Rosa Luxemburg Award for Social Consciousness for Money For Nothing, awarded by New England Film and Video Festival, 2002

Kembrew McLeod CV

Research areas
  • Media History & Culture
Kembrew McLeod
Phone
Education
PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Contact Information
Address

131 Becker Communication Studies Building (BCSB)
Iowa City, IA 52242
United States