About

Tricia Rose is widely known for her trailblazing insights and ability to deepen our understanding of complex, difficult social issues. Her candor and lively, engaging approach invite a broad range of people into the necessary conversations that open doors to new ways of seeing and understanding the world around us.

Over three decades, Tricia has inspired public audiences and generations of students at New York University, the University of California Santa Cruz and Brown University, where she now serves as Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Systemic Racism and Resilience Project at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study.

Tricia earned her Ph.D. from Brown University and her B.A. from Yale University.

“Tricia Rose is one of our most dynamic, and thoughtful, public intellectuals today.”

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York Times-bestselling author of Stony the Road

Author

Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, published in 1994, is acknowledged as the pioneering analysis of hip hop, the work that spawned an entirely new - and now ubiquitous - field of study.

In 2003, Tricia published a unique, powerful oral narrative history of black women's sexuality and sexual life stories, Longing To Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy. Longing To Tell has been adapted by artist akua naru and Tyshawn Sorey with accompanying poetry, jazz and orchestral music. It premieres in Hamburg, Germany, in August, 2025.

In 2008, she published The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop-And Why It Matters, a critical assessment of what was lost during hip hop’s commercial evolution.

Tricia’s newest book, Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives–And How We Break Free is an essential new account of the workings of systemic racism, its devastating human impacts, and how we can break free.

“Tricia Rose is a brilliant scholar who has been on the cutting edge of every concept she’s touched. I read everything she writes, and always learn from her insights and analyses.”

—Imani Perry, National Book Award-winning author of South to America

Latest Project

The Systemic Racism and Resilience Project (SRRP) is a multi-platform exploration of systemic racism in America today. The project shines a clarifying spotlight on how racism in post-civil-rights America works as a system of interconnected, mutually reinforcing policies and practices.

The SRRP includes Tricia’s new book, Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives–And How We Break Free.

Way Outta No Way (2025) is a dynamic web-based experience that blends a systems analysis of racism with compelling character-driven stories, supported by rigorous research. It demonstrates the power of Black life and culture to originate rich modes of human resistance and resilience.

"I found the website both visually stunning and deeply insightful."

—Way Outta No Way Visitor Testimonial

Media and Speaking

Tricia delivers accessible, eye-opening lectures and facilitates lively and thoughtful Q&A discussions with a range of audiences, including students, community and civic organizations and corporate leadership.

She has appeared on PBS, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and other national and local media outlets. Tricia was also a co-producer and co-host with Cornel West for The Tightrope Podcast, a pandemic podcast on race, love and justice.