William Patterson

Bio

Dr. William Patterson (Lecturer, “Decoding Dr. Dre: Exploring CS+X in Hip Hop, Cultural Engineering, and Technology Entrepreneurship,” fall 2018), earned the Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies from the University of Illinois and has served as an Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Information Sciences and the College of Engineering’s Technology Entrepreneurship Center.

Dr. Patterson focuses on preparing students of various Hip Hop generations to be civic-minded urban global leaders in cultural innovation, entrepreneurship, engineering, business, art, and technology. He challenges students by contextualizing applied learning methods that encourage students to re-think various forms of traditional scholarship from a variety of disciplines in order to address contemporary issues that impact urban environments around the globe.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Patterson has developed a plethora of scholarly initiatives utilizing Hip Hop such as the IPOWERED: Higher Ed Remixed Lecture Series and the Hip Hop Xpress Urban STEM Lab. The Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, College of LAS, College of Engineering, Student Affairs, College of Fine and Applied Arts, and the College of Business have utilized Dr. Patterson’s scholarship in a variety of capacities.  His course development cannon includes Service Learning from a Hip Hop Perspective, KRS: Hip Hop Artistry and Social Activism, C.R.E.A.M. (Cash, Rules, and Everything Around Me), Hip Hop and Social Entrepreneurship, Hip Hop and African American Studies in the Age of Obama, Hip Hop as Community Informatics, Decoding Dr. Dre: urban creativity in engineering and technology, and Hip Hop Entrepreneurship: Evolution in Engineering and Technology.

He is a fellow of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies. His current research and action interests concentrates on urban STEM pedagogy development, organizing community code trainings, community sustainability, and entrepreneurship.  Additionally, connecting university students with indigenous community organizations is central to his areas of focus.