- Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2006
David McDonald
Professor, Anthropology
Professor, Folklore and Ethnomusicology
Adjunct Professor, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Affiliate Professor, Media School
he/him
- davmcdon@iu.edu
- (812) 855-0396
- Student Building 164
- Office Hours
Education
Research interests
- Israel/Palestine
- performance ethnography
- social theory
- ethnomusicological study of violence and socio-cultural trauma
- activism and critical ethnography
- protest songs
- Ireland
Courses recently taught
- Music in War, Music for Peace
- Music and Social LIfe: Performance and Community Action
- Study of Ethnomusicology
- Activism, Engagement, and Critical Ethnography
- Paradigms in Ethnomusicology
- Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology
- Music, Power, and Protest
- Soundtrack to Revolution
- Palestine in Popular Culture and Media
- Music and Violence
- Popular Culture and Politics in the Middle East
- Irish Music and Culture
- Palestinian Cinema
Awards & Distinctions
- Ellen Koskoff Prize, awarded by the Society for Ethnomusicology recognizing the most outstanding collection of essays or edited volume published in the field of ethnomusicology (2025)
- Esther Clinton Prize (2025)
- ICTMD Best Article Prize, Honorable Mention (2025)
- Ellen Koskoff Prize (2023)
- Bruno Nettl Prize, Honorable Mention (2023)
- Trustees’ Teaching Award (2021)
- Crossroads Music and Social Justice Prize (2019)
- Chicago Folklore Prize (2014)
- Jaap Kunst Prize (2014)
- Qatar Foundation Research Fellowship (2014)
- Trustees Teaching Award (2012)
- New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities Fellowship (2010-11)
- Institute for Advanced Study Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Empathy (2009-10)
- New Frontiers Arts and Humanities Exploration Travel Fellowship (2009-10)
- Nicholas Temperley Dissertation Award, University of Illinois (2009)
- Outstanding Faculty Program Award, Arts Village, Bowling Green State University (2008)
- The American Center of Oriental Research Council of American Overseas Research Centers Fellowship (CAORC), Amman, Jordan (2005)
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (DDRA) (2003-04)
- Fulbright Institute for International Education Research Fellowship (IIE) (2003-04)
Books
Other publication highlights
- “Protest Song, Tradition, and the Performativity of Resistance in the Palestinian National Movement.” In: Oxford Handbook of Protest Music. eds. Eric Drott and Noriko Manabe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (2025)
- “ Palestinian Music.” Co-Authored with Issa Boulos. In: Routledge Handbook on Palestine. eds. Amneh Badran and Michael Dumper. New York: Routledge Press. (2025)
- “ Affective Assembly and Participatory Politics at the Palestine Music Expo.” In: Music Making Community. eds. Tony Perman and Stefan Fiol. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. (2024)
- “ Introduction: Pathways toward a Justice-Oriented Ethnomusicology.” In: At the Crossroads of Music and Social Justice. eds. Brenda Romero, Susan Asai, David A. McDonald, Andrew Snyder, and Katelyn Best. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (2022)
- “ If I Could Go Back in Time: Rethinking Popular Culture, Social Justice, and the Compassionate Gaze in Palestine.” In: At the Crossroads of Music and Social Justice. eds. Brenda Romero, Susan Asai, David A. McDonald, Andrew Snyder, and Katelyn Best. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (2022)
- “Sincerely Outspoken: Towards a Critical Activist Ethnomusicology” In Transforming Ethnomusicology, Vol. 1: Methodologies, Institutional Structures, and Policies , 110-130. Edited by Beverley Diamond and Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco. New York: Oxford University Press (2021).
- “Critical Folkloristics, Free Speech, and the ‘War on Terror’.” The Journal of American Folklore 133/530: 392-411 (2020).
- “ Junction 48: Hip-Hop Activism, Gendered Violence, and Vulnerability in Palestine.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 32/1: 26-43 (2020).
- “Framing the Arab Spring: Hip-Hop, Social Media, and the American News Media” Journal of Folklore Research 56/1: 105-130 (2019).
- “Imaginaries of Exile and Emergence in Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Hip-Hop.” The Drama Review. 57/3:69-87 (2013).
- “Geographies of the Body: Violence and Manhood in Palestine.” Ethnomusicology Forum 19/2 (2010): 191-214.
- “Carrying Words like Weapons: Hip-Hop and the Poetics of Palestinian Identities in Israel” Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology 7(2) (2009).
- “Poetics and the Performance of Violence in Israel/Palestine.” Ethnomusicology 53 (1) (2009).
The College of Arts