Draft:Heather Augustyn

• Comment: See WP:BLP. Statements, starting with the date of birth, need to be sourced or removed. Greenman (talk) 19:40, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

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Heather Augustyn
Augustyn in 2025
Born	Heather Ransford (1972-06-29) June 29, 1972 Valparaiso, Indiana, U.S.
Occupation	Professor Writer
Citizenship	U.S.
Education	Bradley University (BA) DePaul University (MA)
Genre	Music History, Creative Nonfiction, Music Journalism
Spouse	Ronald Augustyn ​ (m. 1996)​
Website
skabook.com

Heather Augustyn is an American author, journalist, and academic recognized for her extensive contributions to the documentation and analysis of ska and Jamaican music history.

She serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice in Writing at Purdue University Northwest, where she teaches courses in composition and creative writing. Augustyn is noted for her published books, peer-reviewed scholarship, and media appearances that explore the cultural significance and evolution of ska music.

Early Life and Education

Heather Augustyn, nee Ransford, was born in 1972 and raised in Northwest Indiana. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy from Bradley University and a Master of Arts in Writing from DePaul University.

Career

Journalism and Writing

Before her academic career, Augustyn worked as a correspondent for The Times of Northwest Indiana for 12 years. Her journalism career includes contributions to SPIN Magazine, Wax Poetics, Downbeat, The Village Voice, In These Times Magazine, The Humanist, WorldWatch Magazine, E! The Environmental Magazine, Lake Magazine, Shore Magazine, Streetwise, Spoon River Press, and Broadside Literary Journal.

Academic Career

Heather Augustyn is an Assistant Professor of Practice at Purdue University Northwest, where she teaches composition, creative writing, and cultural studies.. Her academic focus blends creative nonfiction and ethnomusicology, particularly in exploring Caribbean and African diasporic music cultures such as ska and reggae.

She has presented regularly at academic conferences and published peer-reviewed work on the global evolution of ska in such publications as Jamaica Journal and Caribbean Quarterly.

Recognition and Awards

Augustyn's debut book, Ska: An Oral History (2010), was nominated for the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research, acknowledging its significant contribution to documenting ska music's history.

She has been invited to present her research at esteemed events, including the International Reggae Conference at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica (2013, 2015, 2017), International Conference on Innovations in the Social Sciences and Humanities at Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in October 2019 and British Forum for Ethnomusicology, University of Cambridge April 2025.

Augustyn's extensive collection of interviews and artifacts related to ska music has been donated to Indiana University's Archives of African American Music and Culture, ensuring the preservation and accessibility of these valuable resources for future scholarship.

The Heather Augustyn Collection at the Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) at Indiana University Bloomington is a rich repository documenting the history of ska, rocksteady, and reggae music. Donated by Heather Augustyn in 2020, the collection spans from 1944 to 2018, with the majority of materials dating from 1997 to 2018.

Books

The following is a comprehensive list of published works by Heather Augustyn, reflecting her extensive contributions to the study of Jamaican music, ska, and related cultural movements:

• Women in Jamaican Music, McFarland, Spring 2020.
• Operation Jump Up: Jamaica’s Campaign for a National Sound, Half Pint Press, 2018.
• Alpha Boys School: Cradle of Jamaican Music, Half Pint Press, 2017.
• Songbirds: Pioneering Women in Jamaican Music, Half Pint Press, 2014.
• Don Drummond: The Genius and Tragedy of the World’s Greatest Trombonist, McFarland, 2013.
• Ska: The Rhythm of Liberation, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.
• Ska: An Oral History, McFarland, 2010.
• Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond (2023, Sally Brown Publishing).

These works underscore Augustyn’s dedication to documenting the cultural, historical, and social dimensions of Jamaican music, particularly the voices and stories often overlooked in mainstream narratives.

Archives

The Heather Augustyn Collection at the Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) at Indiana University Bloomington is a rich repository documenting the history of ska, rocksteady, and reggae music. Donated by Heather Augustyn in 2020, the collection spans from 1944 to 2018, with the majority of materials dating from 1997 to 2018.

In a 2015 TedX Talks, author and historian Heather Augustyn tells us why words are worth a thousand pictures and the importance of recording oral histories of the people in our lives. She tells of her own experience recording histories of pioneering women in Jamaican music and relates how crucial and simple it is for schools, senior living homes, communities, and even families at the dinner table to use smartphones to record stories and personal histories before they are gone forever.

Filmography

• “Pick It Up!: Ska in the '90s” (2019).

Articles

• "The Man Who Wrote the Music Down: Jamaican legend Carlos Malcolm sets the record straight" Spin Magazine January 21, 2025.
• "The Selecter Headlines 10th Annual Supernova Ska Fest: Virgina's annual celebration of the Jamaican sound has grown from a backyard party to an institution" Spin Magazine October 29, 2024.
• "Something Wicked This Way Comes: Pussy Riot: Denounced by Putin as witches, these punk warriors’ warnings position them more as seers" Spin Magazine November 29, 2023.
• "World Ska’s Stupendous Supernova: A Rude Dispatch From Virginia: The biggest ska festival on the planet is a multicultural fusion reaction of positivity" Spin Magazine October 10, 2023.
• “Kurt Vonnegut’s Last Interview: The late, great author on family, freethinkers and the entertainment in Indiana” In These Times May 9, 2007.
• "Did Rap Really Come From Jamaica?" Spin Magazine August 9, 2023.
• "Prolific Indie Darling Repeats Himself Splendidly" The Village Voice.
• "Jazz on the Upbeat" DownBeat Magazine February 2019, p. 66.