Maciej Smó?ka is a scholar affiliated with the Jagiellonian University in Poland, where he works at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora. He holds BA degree in Cultural Studies and MA degree in American Studies from the Jagiellonian University. He specializes in popular music, popular culture and American studies, while his PhD thesis, which he recently finished, titled The Sound of a City: A Study of the Phenomenon Through the Example of the Minneapolis Sound, concerns how music is being culturally associated with cities. He published papers on such topics as music localities and identities, the music industry, and relations between culture, music and politics. He was a visiting researcher at Dickinson College in 2015 and the University of Minnesota in 2018. His current projects include co-editing of a book titled "From the Bowery to the Bronx: A Cultural History of New York City through Song" (Intellect 2022, forthcoming), furthering research about the music of Prince, and researching visions of the U.S. in popular culture.