Twalha Abbass
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- ttabbass@iu.edu
Research interests
African stories and storytelling; epic poetry; material culture; climate change; African vernacular cultures in contemporary literature
Our graduate students
Madi Becker
M.A. Student, Folklore
she/her
- beckermr@iu.edu
Research interests
storytelling in museums, museums & community, heritage studies, institutions & identity, Scottish folklore, folk narrative, the supernatural, gender & sexuality
Ezgi Benli Garcia Guerrero
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- ezgibenl@iu.edu
Research interests
Turkish traditional music; Alevi music and culture; music and mysticism; identity; performative identity; collective memory; NGOs and cultural preservation; arts administration
Emily Bianchi
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
- emnibian@iu.edu
Research interests
American vernacular expressive culture including oral traditions, customs, and material culture; intentional communities and separatist groups; community-constructed sites and resources; vernacular museums and displays; the intersection of material culture and oral narrative; the ethnography of communication; performance studies; vernacular history; social memory; tradition and traditionalization; vernacular religion
Donald Bradley
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- dobradle@iu.edu
Research interests
transnationalism; music and identity; music and the imagination; contemporary Japan; bluegrass and old-time string band music; sound and space; public ethnomusicology
Ross Brillhart
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- rodbrill@iu.edu
Research interests
music and healing; medical ethnomusicology; music and addiction; jam band culture; Jamaican music and religion; ecomusicology
Katie Brown
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- browka@iu.edu
Research interests
Costa Rican popular music; punk and punk scenes; transnational feminisms; queer ecologies; music and activism; identity and performance
Jermaine Butler
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- jermbutl@iu.edu
Research interests
seafaring music of the Persian Gulf; popular culture and cultural history of the Middle East; race and identity, Arabic and Persian pedagogy
Lydia Campbell-Maher
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- lrcampbe@iu.edu
Research interests
Ireland; music and health; neurodiversity; applied ethnomusicology
Andre Cardine
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- acardine@iu.edu
Research interests
Black roller skating culture, queer/femme experiences in Black gospel traditions, Chicago’s hip hop/rnb music scene, capoeira
Katya Chomitzky
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- kchomitz@iu.edu
Research interests
Diaspora studies and transnationality, post-soviet communities, material culture, Ukrainian embroidery, ethnicity and identity, public folklore, museum studies, refugee narratives and material culture, Ukrainian Canadian communities
Madison Cissell
M.A. Student, Folklore
M.L.S. Student, Library Science
she/her
- madciss@iu.edu
Research interests
oral history; public libraries; community archives; aging communities; death studies; gender studies; Jewish studies; ritual; Buddhism; Buddhist monastics; homelessness
Benjamin Danner
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
he/him
- dannerb@iu.edu
Research interests
intersections of religion, science, and health; folk belief and medicine; applied medical folkloristics
Deborah De La Torre
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her/ella
- debdelat@iu.edu
Research interests
Latine Music Research, Latine Studies, historical ethnomusicology, intersectional approaches to Latinidad, Caribbean cultures, film, sound, aging, and economics
Rafael Durão Emerson
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- rdemerso@iu.edu
Research interests
Music and sound in football, Sports Chants, politics and aesthetics in sports, noise pollution, sound studies, sound art
Niousha Eslahchi
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- neslahch@iu.edu
Research interests
applied anthropology, popular culture, gender dynamics, protest songs, political movements, middle east studies, dictatorships, totalitarian states, monarchy, digital activism, social change
Charles Exdell
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- cexdell@iu.edu
Research interests
Brazil; African diaspora in Latin America; critical race theory; engaged ethnomusicology; historical ethnomusicology; filmmaking and ethnography
chloē Fourte
M.A. Student, Ethnomusicology
s/he/y
- chfourte@iu.edu
Research interests
Black diasporic music traditions, vocal traditions in early American country, gospel, and blues music, moving images, communication theory and communication technologies, cybernetics, electronic club/dance musix, internet subcultures, southern trap, contemporary digital medias/art, archives, audio recording practices, the politics and performance of gender and race in musix and media
Kyle Fulford
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- kpfulfor@iu.edu
Research interests
recording studio culture; music information retrieval; progressive rock; music and social critique; sound studies; Italy
Rowan Glass
M.A. Student, Folklore
he/him
- rfglass@iu.edu
Research interests
Andes-Amazon interface, artisanry & craftwork, autonomy, biocultural heritage, Colombia, ethnohistory, expressive culture, human-environment interactions, Indigeneity, interculturality, Latin America, materiality, multimodal ethnography, public folklore, ritual, shamanism, social movements, sociocultural change & adaptation, transculturation, visual ethnography & filmmaking
Isaiah Green
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- isgreen@iu.edu
Research Interests
Appalachian studies; storytelling ethnography; cultural responses to the Anthropocene; development studies; spiritual and sacred ecology; environmental justice; sound studies; applied/engaged/activist ethnomusicology
Gwyneth Harris
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
she/her
- gwroharr@iu.edu
Research interests
children’s folklore and literature, games, toys, and play theory; mind and cognition; storytelling, performance, (ethno)poetics and narrative structure; folk science, the occult, and supernatural belief; absurdity and the grotesque; death and rites of passage; history and philosophy of social science; historical ethnography
Qiaoyun (Jeolin) Hu
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- huqiao@iu.edu
Research interests
Museum studies; Digitalization; Material culture; Curation; Indigenous knowledge, belief, and pedagogy; Disability and folklore culture; Death-related beliefs and objects; Object-based interface
Touhidul Islam
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
he/him
- toisla@iu.edu
Research interests
intangible cultural heritage practices, living traditions, indigenous knowledge, identity politics, visual representation, climate change, and migration. Passionate about visual documentation of different cultural elements
Thomas Jackson
Ph.D. Student, Folklore and Religious Studies
he/him
- jacksthc@iu.edu
Research interests
global philosophy; Huang-Lao Daoism; syncretic methodology; creolization; self-cultivation; Madhyamaka; all kinds of underappreciated philosophical thought
Christian James
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
they/them
- jamechmo@iu.edu
Research interests
music and international development; South Asian feminisms; folksong in Greater Punjab; Indic musicology; sound studies; public folklore and ethnomusicology
Joseph Johnson
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/they
- johnso46@iu.edu
Research interests
Music of the African diaspora; American roots music; oral traditions and verbal art; queer performance studies; sound studies; public ethnomusicology
Kennedi Johnson
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- kaj12@iu.edu
Research interests
Children’s musiking, racialized sound, music of the African diaspora, and rap and hip hop culture, critical pedagogy, and Black girlhood studies
Tristan Leighton
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
- tleight@iu.edu
Research interests
heavy metal, class, Marxist theory, punk rock, hybrid genres, political economy, youth subcultures, and mental health
Micah Ling
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- mjling@iu.edu
Research interests
material culture; dress and adornment; quilts and textiles; material imagination; old-time music; the Upper Midwest; Scandinavia; Appalachia; queer folklife; public folklore; museums
Yun-Kiu Lo
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
- yunklo@iu.edu
Research interests
identity and persona; virtual space; performance studies; sound studies; media studies; popular culture and music; Japanese popular music; Japanese dōjin culture
Emilyann Long
M.A. Student, Folklore
she/her
- longeh@iu.edu
Research interests
folklore and literature, memoir, storytelling, collective memory, gender and sexuality
Amelia López López
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- amelopez@iu.edu
Research interests
Intersections of sound and race; feminisms; postcolonial studies; digital humanities; decolonial approaches; archives; violin making/playing; human rights; Latin American studies; understanding some of the multiple forms of ethnomusicology in the Americas
Amy Makota
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- afma@iu.edu
Research interests
German hip hop, social activism, performance, gender, feminism, identity, diaspora, multiculturalism, (im)mobility
Monica Marion
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore and Complex Networks and Systems
- monmmari@iu.edu
Research interests
computational methods in folklore; folktales; modern American folklore; narrative structure; comparative; Internet folklore; digital archives
Holly Mathews
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- hrmathew@iu.edu
Research interests
folk belief and vernacular religion; supernatural traditions; legend studies; personal narrative; gender, sexuality, and class studies
Robert McCormac
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- robdmcco@iu.edu
Research interests
Southeastern US; Appalachia; bluegrass and old time; luthiery; nostalgia and remembrance; environmental crisis; resource extraction
Eric McGoffin
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- ecmcgoff@iu.edu
Research interests
South Louisiana Creole and Cajun, Nicaragua, Caribbean Fringe, Ethnography
Tanjina Milee
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- tmilee@iu.edu
Research interests
minority communities, cultural practices, art, costume and traditions, material culture, ICH, gender dynamics, women development and representation, public folklore, and the impact of climate change
Micky Jo Myers
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
- myersmij@iu.edu
Research interests
first-generation college students; personal experience narratives; applied folklore; education; identity; trauma
Suyash Kumar Neupane
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- sneupan@iu.edu
Research interests
popular and traditional musics in Nepal/South Asia/Asia; intersection of sound studies and food anthropology; sensory ethnography; synthwave (aesthetics and nostalgia); public digital scholarship
Tadhg Ó Meachair
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
é/sé/he/him
- tdomeach@iu.edu
Research interests
Irish traditional music; composition in vernacular music; diaspora; nationalism; An Ghaeilge/Irish language
Maesa Ogas
M.A. Student, Folklore
M.L.S. Student, Library Science
they/them
- mogas@iu.edu
Research interests
oral history, community archives, collective memory, public folklore, foodways, gender affirmation through tattoos, Disability Justice, moving images, queer studies, photo-elicitation
Ozgun Ozata
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- oozata@iu.edu
Research interests
supernatural folklore, psychoanalytical study of folklore, horror culture, magic rituals, media studies, foodways
Emmie Pappa-Eddy
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
they/them
- sepappae@iu.edu
Research interests
material culture; folk art; costume; dress; gender studies; burlesque; drag; queer culture; popular culture; monsters; foodways
Lamont Pearley
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- lpearley@iu.edu
Research interests
blues people, southern Black folklore, blues music, American music
Olivia Phillips
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- ohphilli@iu.edu
Research interests
Appalachian studies; ruralness; tradition and innovation; traditional music and heritage narratives; American, Scottish, and Irish traditional singing; voice studies; North Carolina folklife; music and place; public/applied folklore and ethnomusicology
Garima Plawat
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
she/her
- gplawat@iu.edu
Research interests
Indian indigenous communities, indigeneity, festivals and identity, performance studies, death and fertility, sexuality and communal identity formation
Adriane Pontecorvo
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- ajpontec@iu.edu
Research interests
media geographies; community radio; music and place; performance; popular music; mobilities
Jeremy Reed
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- reedjer@iu.edu
Research interests
music festivals; musics of the Levantine Arab world; music and nationalism; culture-as-resource; applied/public ethnomusicology
Jessie Riddle
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
- jesriddl@iu.edu
Research interests
Latinx vernacular Catholicism in the United States; festivals for the Virgin of Guadalupe; fairy tale studies; digital humanities; sense of place
Savannah Ridley
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
they/them & she/her
- sridley@iu.edu
Research interests
music and devotion, poetics, trauma studies, music and grief, sound studies, activist ethnomusicology
Jenna Sears
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
they/them
- jensears@iu.edu
Research interests
applied ethnomusicology, music and migration, music education, activist ethnomusicology, community singing, Queer studies, music and memory, design justice theory
Simran
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- fnusi@iu.edu
Research interests
material culture; narratives; belief system; nomadism; faith; worldview; Rajasthan; nomadic blacksmiths; cultural heritage; traditional knowledge; communal legacy
Nia I'man Smith
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- niaismit@iu.edu
Research interests
ancestor veneration in Black music, African cultural retentions, cultural memory, the Black diaspora, Yoruba cosmology
A'Yanna Solomon
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
they/them & she/her
- aysolom@iu.edu
Research interests
(global) hip hop culture, popular culture, comic studies, sensory studies, trauma studies, indigenous studies, theories of listening, autotheory, sociolinguistics, (cultural) phenomenology, afropessimism, (critical) nationalism, posthumanism, Central Asia
Ben Storsved
Ph.D. Student, Folklore and Central Eurasian Studies
he/him
- bejstor@iu.edu
Research interests
folklore and oral narratives of Central Asia and Siberia; heroic epics; oral literature textualization; digital humanities
Julie Stout
M.A. Student, Folklore
M.L.S. Student, Library Science
- julistou@iu.edu
Research interests
Politics of culture; international relations & cultural resource management; heritage preservation; cultural heritage/property; repatriation; heritage tourism; UNESCO & ICH; intersection between material culture and oral narrative; cultural memory; archives and records management
Niger Sultana
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- nisultan@iu.edu
Research interests
material culture, identity discourse and heritage, feminist folklore, belief system, digital folklore
Caroline Tatem
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- cjtatem@iu.edu
Research interests
Ireland; Ulster; Armagh; mumming and masking traditions; mythology; Celtic spirituality; sacred sites; legends; rhyming and poetry traditions; ritual; visual arts; Irish language; Baltic folklore; Lithuania
Iris Teeuwen
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
she/her
- iteeuwen@iu.edu
Research interests
holiday lore; festivals; parades; European winter holidays; Dutch culture; colonialism; transatlantic slave trade; Dutch history; social justice movements
Andrew Tompkins
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- antompki@iu.edu
Research interests
folk belief; vernacular theologies; American religion; Mormon feminisms
Connor Toole
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
he/him
- contoole@iu.edu
Research interests
Ireland and the UK, Central Europe, North America, industrial folklore, occupational and non-occupational folklore, the construction and politics of culture, identity, and tradition, ethnohistory, oral history, memory studies, spatial studies, the digitization of traditions archives, vernacular custom and material culture, traditional music genres, commemoration, and performance studies
Caroline VerMeulen
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- carhmill@iu.edu
Research interests
Irish travellers; women’s personal narrative; collaborative methodologies; displacement and eviction; rumor and legend; traditionalization of craft moonshine
Iryna Voloshyna
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- ivolosh@iu.edu
Research interests
nationalism; politics of culture; migration and diaspora studies; UNESCO and ICH; archives and museums; material culture; performance studies; folk arts; Ukrainian traditional music; Slavic folklore; Ukraine; Eastern Europe; Ukrainian Americans
Hilary Warner-Evans
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
she/her
- hwarnere@iu.edu
Research Interests
folksong and ballad; local songs; songmakers/writers; sense of place; tourism and heritage; communal identity; traditionalization; northeastern North America (esp. Maine)
Kimberley Watson
Ph.D. Student, Ethnomusicology
she/her
- watsokia@iu.edu
Research interests
music of the African Diaspora; Black protest music; music of Trinidad and Tobago; Caribbean music scene; music and healing; critical race theory; oral traditions; activist ethnomusicology; women and gender studies; intersectionality between music education and ethnomusicology; decolonial approaches
Jennie Williams
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
- jsw4@iu.edu
Research interests
applied ethnomusicology; folk and traditional arts programs in the United States; community music in Southern Indiana; intangible cultural heritage; American vernacular music; arts administration
Shaun Williams
Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnomusicology
he/him
- shapwill@iu.edu
Research interests
critical ethnography; social movements; minority rights; Romani culture; transnationalism; identity; Yiddish culture; ethnographic film; audio archives; Eastern Europe
Wuerxiya
Ph.D. Candidate, Folklore
- wwuerxiy@iu.edu
Research interests
Material culture, dress and adornment, folk art, museums, Mongolian music, Mongolia and ethnic groups in China
Chunfen Zhou
Ph.D. Student, Folklore
- cz47@iu.edu
Research interests
material culture; museum studies; traditional ecological knowledge; human evolution; southwest China
The College of Arts