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Kazadi wa Mukuna, ethnomusicologist, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where he also served as Coordinator of Graduate Studies (2002-2006).  Professor Kazadi received his Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.   He has taught at the Universidade de São Paulo, the Universidade Federal de Maranhão, and the Universidade de Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO) in Brazil; The Université Nationale du Zaire, in Lubumbashi and Kisangani; The Institut National des Arts, in Kinshasa; Michigan State University, and Williams College.  Professor Kazadi serves as a Visiting Professor in the Programa de Pos-Graduação em Integração de America Latina (PROLAM) at the Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, where he also advises graduate students, directs theses and dissertations. Professor Kazadi is known throughout academic circles for his scrutiny on the influence of the traditional music of Africa on the musics of the Americas.  His publications in these subjects have appeared in various languages and countries.  Among his books are Characteristic Criteria in the Vocal Music of the Luba-Shankadi Children (Tervuren: Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, 1972); African Songs for American Elementary Schools (Lansing: Michigan State University, 1980); Contribuição Bantu na Música Popular Brasileira: Perspectivas Etnomusicológicas, 3rd edition (São Paulo: Terceira Margem Editora, 2006); Interdisciplinary Study of the Ox and the Slave (Bumba-meu-Boi): A Satirical Music Drama in Brazil (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003). Among his most popular articles are “Toward the Quest for the Truth in Ethnomusicology” (2007); “Globalization of the Urban Music of the Democratic Republic of the Congo” (2005); “Slit Drum” (2003); “Congolese Music” (2001); “Ethnomusicology and the Study of Africanisms in the Music of Latin America: Brazil” (1999); “The Rise of Bumba-meu-Boi in Maranhão: Resilience of African Brazilian Cultural Identity” (1999); “The Evolution of Urban Music During the 2nd and 3rd Decades (1975-1985) of the Second Republic – Zaire” (1999); “Creative Practice in African Music: New Perspectives in the Scrutiny of Africanisms in Diaspora” (1997); “The Universal Language of all Time?” (1997). Professor Kazadi is actively involved in research projects.  Two of his most current projects are “A Dictionary of Urban Music and Musicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo” and “The Evolution of the Urban Music of the Democratic Republic of Congo”.