Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo
PhD, Associate Professor, Dance Music Researcher
About
Before joining the Chico State Sociology department in 2015, I grew up in the Bay Area, worked in San Francisco and Oakland, completed Thai language training in Madison, Wisconsin, worked on a few farms in Livingston, Montana and lectured at Montana State University. I completed my MSc (2001) in Sociology at the London School of Economics and my PhD (2009) at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Before Hurricane Katrina, I also completed graduate work at Tulane University in New Orleans, an experience that resulted in my co-edited book about the sociological impact of the storm (see Narrating the Storm: Sociological Stories of Hurricane Katrina, 2011).
As an Associate Professor at CSU Chico, I teach classical and contemporary theory and courses that cover the areas of gender, sex, sexuality, and popular culture. In all of my classes, I connect theoretical readings to students’ everyday lives and experiences. Echoing student evaluations across my classes, a student expressed this sentiment: “I like that we are given many real-life, relatable examples for the theories we learn about because it allows me to visualize a connection that helps me better understand the (language of) theories, in general.” As a professor, I want students to be able to understand and use the material we cover in my classes; meeting students where they are is part of that process.
My recent book, Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism (2022), is about the production of social and cultural physical and digital spaces in dance music, spaces that share features of both rave authenticity and EDM/club culture commercialism. Utilizing a concept I call authenticity maneuvering and locating how clubs, clubbers, and DJs navigate authenticity, branding, and commercialism, I argue that the strategic use of a rave ethos both bolsters acceptance in dance music spaces and is used to make commercial practices less visible or problematic. Physically and digitally following three highly successful women DJs and their colleagues, I show how the presence of both authenticity and commercialism is both enabling and constraining, requiring the ongoing and pervasive performance of authenticity via branding. Offering detailed accounts of how clubbers move through dance music spaces, DJs engage in branding and clubs navigate this new terrain, my book presents a compelling and much-needed analysis of the complicated interplay between dancing bodies, digital practices, and spatial offerings in contemporary dance music.
Some music I’ve discovered along the way
After being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2024, I received a craniotomy to remove the tumor. I’m currently living with an ongoing disability that has completely changed my everyday life and enabled me to return to doing art that heals my brain and body and has significantly slowed me down, for the better. I am grateful for how much everything has changed in my life and always ready for whatever comes next.
Writing
Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism.
“Dance Music Reckonings: Authenticity, Whiteness, and Toxic Masculinity.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Music Industry Studies, edited by David Arditi and Ryan Nolan.
“Sex workers’ rights activism in the United States: Navigating the internet in an age of s*x censorship, state, and corporate surveillance.”
In Introducing the New Sexuality Studies (4th edition), edited by Nancy Fischer, Laurel Westbrook and Steven Seidman.
“Teaching Spaces of Possibility: Cultivating Safe, Relaxed, and Challenging Classrooms” In Teaching Gender and Sex in Contemporary America, edited by Ryanne Pilgeram and Kristin Haltinner.
“‘Tonight, You are a Man!’: Negotiating Embodied Resistance in Local Thai Nightclubs”
In Cultural Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Asia, edited by Tiantian Zheng.
“Embodying Theory: Problematizing the Mundane in Everyday Life.” In ASA Section on Body & Embodiment Blog.
“A performer and a professor: two friends and colleagues talk porn…in college.” Porn Studies, 2.2-3: 279-282.
“’We’re Still in the Trenches, Baby…’: Navigating Academia in an Uncertain, Post-Katrina World.” In Rethinking Disaster Recovery: A Hurricane Katrina Retrospective, edited by Jeannie Haubert.
Get in touch
I’m always available for conversations and talks worldwide. If you want to chat about dance music culture, sexualities, or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Recordings
Book episode with New Books in Sociology podcast, July 2024
“Authenticity” episode with People & Dancefloors radio show, April 2023
Dance Music Spaces, Book Talk, April 2022
First Vignette in Dance Music Spaces, March 2022
Second Vignette in Dance Music Spaces, March 2022
Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo 