(PHOENIX, Ariz., April 18, 2005) - Marcyliena Morgan will be lecturing at Phoenix College as the final speaker of the Maricopa Community Colleges' 2004-2005 Honors Forum Lecture Series which has as its theme Popular Culture: Shaping and Reflecting Who We Are. Ms. Morgan is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. Marcyliena will speak on "Can Hiphop Culture Survive Pop Culture?"

She was former Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University where she is the founding director of the Hiphop Archive at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute. Her research has focused on youth, gender, language, culture and identity, sociolinguistics, discourse and interaction. She is author of Language, Discourse, and Power in African American Culture (2002) and Editor of Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations (1994). Her other publications include articles and chapters on gender and women's speech, language ideology, discourse and interaction among Caribbean women in London and Jamaica, urban youth language and interaction, hiphop culture, and language education planning and policy. She is currently completing a book on hiphop culture titled The Real Hiphop - Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the Underground.

The lecture will be at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, April 20, 2005 in the Bulpitt Auditorium at Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix, Arizona. The larger community is invited to attend this informative lecture and have the opportunity to learn more about this genre which is a integral part of many of our youths' lives.

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