I write about the aesthetics and politics of revivals in bluegrass and South Asian music. 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. In 2019 I joined the music department at Warren Wilson College, where I teach courses in music culture and history, theory, banjo, and bluegrass music.
My book manuscript engages critical debates in ethnomusicology and religious studies, exploring issues of appropriation and revival. The book focuses on elite representations of Baul-Fakir musicians and spiritual practitioners, from their exoticization by liberal audiences to their demonization by religious reformists. I write about how Baul-Fakir musicians navigate the competing currents of Bengali cultural revival, evading persecution while creatively presenting their music in ways that meet revival audiences’ romanticized ideals. At a time when religious chauvinism dominates politics and policy in India, Baul-Fakir musicians continue their work as advocates for local values of pluralism and communal harmony.
I also write about bluegrass and its contemporary offshoots, genres 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. 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.
Here is my C.V.
My book manuscript engages critical debates in ethnomusicology and religious studies, exploring issues of appropriation and revival. The book focuses on elite representations of Baul-Fakir musicians and spiritual practitioners, from their exoticization by liberal audiences to their demonization by religious reformists. I write about how Baul-Fakir musicians navigate the competing currents of Bengali cultural revival, evading persecution while creatively presenting their music in ways that meet revival audiences’ romanticized ideals. At a time when religious chauvinism dominates politics and policy in India, Baul-Fakir musicians continue their work as advocates for local values of pluralism and communal harmony.
I also write about bluegrass and its contemporary offshoots, genres 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. 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.
Here is my C.V.
