Current Students in Ethnomusicology

Dang, Christine Thu Nhi
(5th year)
chrda@sas.upenn.edu

Doan, Jessamyn
(4th year)
jdoan@sas.upenn.edu

I am interested in music and religion in American culture, particularly in both the real and the imagined American South.  I love Sacred Harp music and other shape note traditions, and am particularly intrigued by its spread across the country. As a side interest, I love contemporary pop music and pop culture, ranging from hip hop to country music.  It is particularly fascinating to me when my two sets of research interests overlap and exploring the spaces which are created in these intersections.

Donnelly, Laura
(2nd year)
ldonn@sas.upenn.edu

To put it most simply, my research is concerned with popular music and identity in the francophone Caribbean. In May 2010 I graduated from Michigan State University with an M.A. in Ethnomusicology, where I was advised by Michael Largey. I have completed multi-sited fieldwork in the Caribbean and France for my master's thesis, entitled, "Life After Zouk: Emerging Popular Music of the French Antilles," which explores three post-2000 musical trends, and how their work is redefining what it means to make Guadeloupean music. Since beginning my Ph.D. coursework, I have continued my work on Guadeloupe while investigating noirist and indigenisme movements in Haiti. I am fascinated with notions of creoleness, diaspora, negritude, cosmopolitanism, modernity, "double consciousness," and the neo/post-colonial.

Holtzman, Glenn
(5th year)
glennh@sas.upenn.edu

My interests range from codicological studies of medieval manuscripts, to exploring the ways in which gender, sexual and ethnic discourses intersect in the social construction of identity. To date, much of my research has centered on the music and dance of the Coloured community of South Africa. My dissertation topic will examine how Coloured communities in Cape Town use music as a catalyst to create a safe space for the display of “queer” behavior which would otherwise be culturally unacceptable. In addition to my musical and anthropological research, I have a strong interest in the study of higher education institutions, their management, and the policy and social contexts in which they operate.

Khoury, Hanna
(1st year)

I am completing a dissertation that examines the politics of exclusion and reconciliation among Croatian, Romany, and Serbian tambura musicians in post-conflict areas of Croatia and Serbia, and in patriotic networks maintained beyond the nation-state by Croats in the diaspora and in communities of newly foreign ("balkanized") states nearby. This study incorporates field and archival research conducted in Europe and North America with the support of an ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in East European Studies. I have also written and presented on fascination in the tourism of Bulgarian traditional music festivals; analytical approaches to South Slavic popular music; local color in nineteenth-century Croatian and German musical nationalism; Qur'anic recitation, dhikr, and popular music in an African American masjid; and applications of ethnomusicology in the public interest. In addition, I am currently writing on the scoring of Soviet political animated film after World War II and its deployment of jazz as a target and device of ideological communication, a project for which my research partner (a Penn art historian) and I received Penn's GAPSA-Provost Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation. My research appears in Current Musicology, the Yearbook for Traditional Music, and several book and conference proceedings chapters. I also enjoy directing Southeast European dance and music ensembles, and have taught music through both scholarly and applied approaches at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Meadows, Ruthie
(3rd Year)
rmeadows@sas.upenn.edu

Raised within the “fiddle” bluegrass traditions of the Virginian Appalachia, Ruthie Meadow’s research interests have expanded to include musical aesthetics and identity formation across the United States and Latin America. From New Orleans brass band and second-line traditions to Mexican-America banda and reggaeton, she seeks to explore the interconnectedness of various Latin American and Caribbean musical aesthetics and identities within both their respective regions and their transnational counterparts in the United States.

Meyers, John
(7th year)
meyersj@sas.upenn.edu

My research interests center around popular music in America—both defined as broadly as possible. My dissertation is an ethnographic examination of tribute bands both within the United States and around the world, particularly focusing on issues of canonization, historical consciousness, authenticity, and the ideology of rock music. I also have a strong interest in African American popular musics like jazz and hip-hop.

Ohman, Nina-Christina
(5th Year)
ninao@sas.upenn.edu

My research interests include African American music with a focus on sacred genres, popular music, and gender-related themes as expressed in the contexts of local performance practices and global culture industries. My dissertation, tentatively titled, “'I’m Every Woman': An Integrative Inquiry Into Female Gospel Music Rhetoric and It’s Influence In American Popular Music” examines the historical shifts in female gospel music traditions and especially their influence in the realm of American popular music. Additionally, my thematic interests include American jazz and jazz around the world, cultural studies, social entrepreneurship, intellectual property rights, and cultural policy.


Rothchild, Emily Joy
(3rd Year)
emilyjoy@sas.upenn.edu

My research focuses on women and music in Islam and Christianity.  By exploring gender, identity, and tradition, I seek to understand how music affects the construction of religious communities.  I have completed fieldwork projects in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and Dresden, Germany.  I intend to focus next on women in the Turkish diaspora of Germany and their relationships with Turkish rap and hip-hop.  Other research interests include the music of the Middle East, East Africa, and Turkey.   

Swanston, Jessica
(3rd year)
jeswan@sas.upenn.edu

Having received a bachelors in Vocal Performance from Bucknell University, my interests outside of performance include music of first generation Caribbean-American youth in the United States.  Additionally, I'm fascinated (read: obsessed) with notions of "blackness" in neo-soul music and the process of identification and classification of new genres of black music.

Veeraraghavan, Lee
(3rd Year)
leevee@sas.upenn.edu