I write about the aesthetics and politics of revivals in both South Asian and Appalachian musics. I received my PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, and am currently completing the book based on my doctoral research, Caging an Unknown Bird: Folk Revival and Persecution in Contemporary Bengal. I have held visiting assistant professor and adjunct appointments at Emory and Temple University, where I currently teach.
My current book manuscript engages critical debates that intersect ethnomusicology, Asian studies, and religious studies, and explores issues of appropriation, revival, and national identity. Based on my extensive field research, the book focuses on elite representations of Baul-Fakir musicians and spiritual practitioners, from their exoticization by liberal audiences to their demonization by religious extremists. I examine how Baul-Fakirs navigate the competing currents of the Bengali cultural revival, evading persecution while also seeking to embody their patrons’ romanticized ideals. At a time when religious chauvinism increasingly dominates South Asian policy and politics, Baul-Fakirs continue to assert their traditional role as advocates of local values of pluralism and tolerance. My research in West Bengal and Bangladesh was supported by the Fulbright Association and the Society for Asian Music. I have presented at conferences organized by the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Folklore Society, Harvard University, the Fulbright Program, Visva-Bharati University, and the Stanford University Center for South Asia.
My second book project concerns bluegrass and its contemporary offshoots, a genre within which I have performed professionally for over twenty years. My master’s thesis explored the music of Andy Statman, who combines bluegrass, avant-garde jazz, and Hasidic Jewish music; I received the 2011 Bluegrass Scholarship Prize from the International Bluegrass Music Association for this research. My 2018 article in American Music highlights the processes and implications of genre-boundary maintenance in the 1970s bluegrass world, when conservative audiences rejected irreverent, experimental bands in favor of others that implicitly celebrated white working-class Southern identity. The article sheds light on a remarkable time when urban folk revivalism, a nascent “world music” movement, and a newly constructed bluegrass traditionalism clashed at Southern festivals. I plan to delve further into these themes in my second book project, which examines negotiations of aesthetic, racial, gender, and socio-cultural boundaries in the bluegrass world over the past fifty years.
Here is my C.V.
My current book manuscript engages critical debates that intersect ethnomusicology, Asian studies, and religious studies, and explores issues of appropriation, revival, and national identity. Based on my extensive field research, the book focuses on elite representations of Baul-Fakir musicians and spiritual practitioners, from their exoticization by liberal audiences to their demonization by religious extremists. I examine how Baul-Fakirs navigate the competing currents of the Bengali cultural revival, evading persecution while also seeking to embody their patrons’ romanticized ideals. At a time when religious chauvinism increasingly dominates South Asian policy and politics, Baul-Fakirs continue to assert their traditional role as advocates of local values of pluralism and tolerance. My research in West Bengal and Bangladesh was supported by the Fulbright Association and the Society for Asian Music. I have presented at conferences organized by the Society for Ethnomusicology, the American Folklore Society, Harvard University, the Fulbright Program, Visva-Bharati University, and the Stanford University Center for South Asia.
My second book project concerns bluegrass and its contemporary offshoots, a genre within which I have performed professionally for over twenty years. My master’s thesis explored the music of Andy Statman, who combines bluegrass, avant-garde jazz, and Hasidic Jewish music; I received the 2011 Bluegrass Scholarship Prize from the International Bluegrass Music Association for this research. My 2018 article in American Music highlights the processes and implications of genre-boundary maintenance in the 1970s bluegrass world, when conservative audiences rejected irreverent, experimental bands in favor of others that implicitly celebrated white working-class Southern identity. The article sheds light on a remarkable time when urban folk revivalism, a nascent “world music” movement, and a newly constructed bluegrass traditionalism clashed at Southern festivals. I plan to delve further into these themes in my second book project, which examines negotiations of aesthetic, racial, gender, and socio-cultural boundaries in the bluegrass world over the past fifty years.
Here is my C.V.
