Kyle Mays

Kyle Mays is Assistant Professor at UCLA with joint appointments in African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and History. His transdisciplinary scholarship examines urban experiences through Afro-Indigenous frameworks.

Research focuses on:

• Intersections of Black and Indigenous histories
• Hip hop as Indigenous cultural expression
• Urban space as site of settler colonialism

His publications include 'Hip Hop Beats, Indigenous Rhymes: Modernity and Hip Hop in Indigenous North America' and forthcoming works on Afro-Indigenous history. Current projects analyze Detroit's transformation through racial dispossession.

Honors include research fellowships from James Weldon Johnson Institute and UCLA Institute on Inequality and Democracy. He teaches courses on urban history, popular culture, and decolonial theory.