Szwed received a
B.S. in
business administration and
economics from
Marietta College in 1958. He also studied trombone and music theory and played professionally for twelve years; as an undergraduate, he worked in a steel mill and performed at roadhouses, country clubs, college dances and speakeasies in Ohio and
West Virginia. Thereafter, he enrolled at
Ohio State University, where he earned a second bachelor's degree in communications in 1959, an
M.A. in communications in 1960 and a
Ph.D. in
sociology and
anthropology in 1965. His graduate school adviser was anthropology pioneer
Erika Bourguignon, who encouraged him to bring to his work what he already knew and experienced. His work as an anthropologist and folklorist includes field studies in Newfoundland, the
Georgia Sea Islands, and
Trinidad. From 1982 to 2008, Szwed was John M. Musser Professor of Anthropology, African American Studies and Film Studies at
Yale University. Szwed was appointed term Professor of Music and Jazz Studies at
Columbia University in 2008, a position he held through 2014. From 2011 to 2014, he was Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia. He has also taught at
New York University and the
University of Pennsylvania, where he was Director of the Center for Urban Ethnography and Chair of the Department of Folklore. Szwed is married to Marilyn Anderson Szwed and lives in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ==Publications==