Danielle Maggio

Background

About Danielle Maggio

Writer | Professor | Vocalist | Vinyl DJ I am currently under contract with The Feminist Press to write a biography about Betty Davis (forthcoming in 2027). Literary representation by United Talent Agency. I received my PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020. My dissertation used exclusive, in-depth ethnography to produce the first scholarly study of pioneering feminist funk musician Betty Davis. I am the Associate Producer of the 2017 documentary film Betty – They Say I’m Different, and the liner notes author for Light In The Attic Record’s 2023 re-releases of Betty Davis’s albums (Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different, and Crashin’ From Passion). In 2019, I sang lead vocals on the first new song written and produced by Betty Davis in forty years, and established the Betty Davis Scholarship, an annual award for a graduating high school senior who is pursuing music at Ms. Davis’s alma mater. I am currently an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh where I teache Global Pop Music and World Music. I have presented my research at the national meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, American Musicological Society, Society for American Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Dayton Funk Symposium, MoPOP Pop, and the Cultural Studies Association.