Communication studies professor to discuss the American brewing industry, new book at Hollins

J. Nikol Beckham

Communication studies professor J. Nikol Beckham has a strong interest in what she calls “forgotten skills.” One of those skills is brewing beer, and she will share some of her knowledge about the American brewing industry at Hollins University next week.

Beckham’s lecture, “At the Bottom of a Pint of Beer: Where I Found Race, Class, Gender, and Consumer Capitalism,” will examine how gender, race, and class have been a part of brewing, marketing, selling, and drinking beer throughout history. Her research is part of her upcoming book, tentatively entitled, “The Value of a Pint: American Beer, Cultural Change, and the Stubborn Materiality of Contemporary Capitalism.”

“The book is a cultural economy of the American brewing industry from the end of prohibition until now,” Beckham said, “Which is a rather complicated way of saying I look at the intersection of cultural change and the economic trajectory of this rather delicious commodity that has been such a central part of the American experience.”

Beckham’s lecture will take place Monday, April 4, in the Green Drawing Room at Hollins University. The presentation starts at 7 p.m., and a reception will follow.