1990 - Ph.D. Majors: Ethnomusicology
Minors: African-American Studies (Double minor – 30 credits), American Studies Indiana University, Bloomington
1984 - M.A. Ethnomusicology - Indiana University, Bloomington
1984 - C.A. Certified Archivist – Society of American Archivists
1980 - B.A. Double Major: Sociology/Fine Arts - Montclair State University, NJ
1978-1980 Theory and Composition – The Juilliard School
1971 - Apprenticeship with American abstract expressionist painter Willem de Kooning
2020 - ARSC (Association of Recorded Sound Collections) Award for Excellence for Best
Historical Research in Recorded Blues, Soul, Gospel, or R&B
2020 - Living Blues Critics Poll Award Winner:
Best Blues Book of the Year - Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson
Living Blues Reader’s Poll Award Winner:
Best Blues Book of 2019 - Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson
2020 – Penderyn Prize for the best book on any music topic (history, biography, autobiography,
analysis, fiction, etc.) for Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson
2014 – UM Center for World Performance Studies Summer Faculty Grant - $2,500
2014 - UM Center for World Performance Studies Discretionary Grant for travel to England to
give a keynote address and perform American roots music - $2,000
2014- UM Provost Discretionary Grant for travel to England to give a keynote address and
perform American roots music - $3,000
2013 - Transforming Learning for the Third Century Grant: “Living the Blues – Roots Music
Immersion”$30,000
2013 - Taubman School of Architecture Research on the City Grant – “Music Festivals as
Accelerated Cities” $40,000
2012 - Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching – University of Michigan
2011 - Princeton Review “One of America’s 300 Best Professors”
2008 - CRLT Lecturer’s Professional Development Grant $3,000
2001 - Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Transcription grant $30,000
1992 – Capital One Education Grant – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum $40,000
1988 - The L.J. Skaggs and Mary C. Skaggs Foundation Research Grant to support the research on
The Haight-Ashbury 1965: The Psychedelic Solution - $2,000
1984 - AASLH (American Association for State and Local History) Grant to research the influence
of blues music on African-American migration - $5,000
1982 – National Science Foundation Grant for Wax Cylinder Restoration (with Anthony Seeger
and Nancy Cassel) - $82,000
1984 - Village Voice Jazz and Pop Review selection of Nobody Knows My Name - Blues From South
Carolina and Georgia, 1924-1932 (album produced and edited by Conforth) as one of the
year's best new releases
1983 - Library of Congress selection of Cap'n You're So Mean (album produced and edited by
Conforth) as one of the Outstanding Folk Recordings of 1983
to be continued
to be continued