The Ethnomusicology Institute is a world-renowned international center for ethnomusicological research and training. We foster a research environment in which ethnomusicologists and scholars in related disciplines investigate the sound, performance, and conceptualization of musical thought and behavior. Among our prominent alumni are ethnomusicologists in the public and academic realms of the United States and 60 other countries around the world.

In sound, behavior, and concept, music is a profound means through which individuals and communities seek to understand and engage with the world. Students and faculty at the Ethnomusicology Institute work collaboratively to document, analyze, and interpret the capacities of music and sound to transform self and society across various social, political, and ideational axes.

As an intellectual community, we pursue collaborative and cooperative research projects and conferences, working with several allied units on campus, including:

• Society for Ethnomusicology
• Archives of Traditional Music
• Archives of African American Music and Culture
• Mathers Museum of World Cultures
• Traditional Arts Indiana

At Indiana University we recognize that sound and music are fundamental to human experience, and that music, broadly defined, is a core aspect of human behavior, thought, and practice. Our curriculum focuses on the intersectional study of music and sound, cognition, thought, and behavior. This integrative perspective is applied to the study of the world’s music within a variety of social, cultural, historical, and situational contexts.

Our curriculum offers a full range of courses to provide solid training in the discipline, offering courses in the history, methods, theories, and practices of ethnomusicology, along with classes in particular world areas and music genres, theoretical perspectives, and topics. Our faculty is adept in the research application of social and critical theory, intellectual history, fieldwork, and methodologies for applied, public practice, and activist approaches.

Our graduate program has particular strengths in the music and cultures of West Africa, North America, Asia, the Middle East, as well as in the transregional and diasporic study of music throughout African, Jewish, and Arab diasporas. The Ethnomusicology Institute also offers opportunities to study music performance in a range of traditions as well as training in archival, multimedia, and digital design and preservation.