Faculty

Core Faculty

Eric Charry (Institute Director), Associate Professor, Music Department, Wesleyan University, specializes in music of West Africa, improvisation, jazz, and contemporary popular music. His publications include the book Mande Music, entries in encyclopedias and dictionaries, numerous articles and book chapters, and a forthcoming book he is editing on rap in Africa. He is a past Chair and Director of Graduate Studies of the Music Department.

    Mark Slobin, Richard K. Winslow Professor of Music, Wesleyan University, is one of the most prolific and respected scholars in the field. He has authored or edited over one dozen books, including Tenement Songs (1983) and Fiddler on the Move (2001), both of which won ASCAP-Deems Taylor Awards. His most recent books are Global Soundtracks: Worlds of Film Music (2008) and A Very Short Introduction to Folk Music (2010). He is a past president of SEM and the Society for Asian Music, past editor of Asian Music journal, and past Chair of the Music Department. He is the Series Editor for American Musicspheres at Oxford University Press.

      Su Zheng, Associate Professor, Music Department, Wesleyan University, specializes in gender and music, music in Asian America, and traditional and contemporary music of East Asia. She is a Visiting Professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, as well as a Special Researcher of the Anthropology of Music Division, E-Institutes of Shanghai Universities. Her publications include the recent book Claiming Diaspora: Music, Transnationalism, and Cultural Politics in Asian/Chinese America, entries in encyclopedias and dictionaries, and numerous articles and book chapters. She is the current Chair of the Music Department, past Director of Graduate Studies in Music, and past Chair of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan.

        Guest Faculty

        Melvin Butler, Assistant Professor, Music Department, University of Chicago, has published extensively on the intersection of Pentecostalism, popular culture, and music in Haiti, Jamaica, and the US.

        Peter Hadley, (PhD, Wesleyan University) teaches at Wesleyan, University of New Haven, and Central Connecticut State University. He is currently preparing a book on the global dispersion of the didjeridu.

        Maureen Mahon, Associate Professor, Music Department, New York University, is the author of Right To Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race. Her current research on the music and legacy of black women in rock examines the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, and music production.

        Maria Mendonça, Luce Assistant Professor in Asian Music and Culture, Kenyon College, has extensive experience as a researcher and teacher of Indonesian gamelan music. She teaches in both the music and anthropology departments at Kenyon and is working on a book manuscript titled Globalization and Gamelan: Communitas, Affinity and Other Stories.

        Alex Perullo, Associate Professor, Bryant College, has expertise in music and internet technology and music economies in East Africa. His book Live from Dar Es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy will be published by Indiana University Press in 2011.

        Sumarsam,University Professor of Music, Music Department, Wesleyan University, is one of the most highly respected Javanese gamelan artists, dalangs (puppet master), and scholars. He is the author of Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java.