Education

University of California, Santa Cruz

  • Ph.D. in Music (December 2023)

    • Dissertation: “From Calcutta to the Bengal Tiger: Indian Musicians, American Orientalism, and Cosmopolitan Modernism Pre-1947,” advised by Dr. Dard Neuman

  • M.A. in Music, Emphasis in Ethnomusicology (December 2017)

University of Virginia

  • B.A. with Distinction in History and Music (May 2010)

Publications

  • Book Review: Dhol: Drummers, Identities, and Modern Punjab (Gibb Schreffler). Asian Music (Forthcoming 2025).

  • “Alan Watts, Ali Akbar Khan, and Hindustani Music in the Psychedelic Sixties.” In The Relevance of Alan Watts in Contemporary Culture: Understanding Contributions and Controversies (Routledge Press, 2021).

Work in Progress

  • “Echoes from the Bengal Tiger: Archival Excavations of Musical Life in Early South Asian America” (Preparing for submission, Journal of the American Musicological Society).

  • “Dancers, Drummers, and Economies of Accompaniment in Twenty-First-Century New Delhi” (Preparing for submission, Yearbook for Traditional Music).

Selected Conference Presentations and Invited Lectures

  • “Echoes from the Bengal Tiger: Archival Excavations of Musical Life in Early South Asian America,” University of Chicago, Department of Music (May 2024).

  • “Locating Creativity in the Between: Kathak as Music-Dance.” Roundtable convened at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Ottawa, Ontario (October 2023).

  • “Between the Bols: Structure, Spontaneity, and Sociality in Kathak Accompaniment.” Paper delivered at the AMS-SEM-SMT Joint Meeting, New Orleans (November 2022).

  • “Experimentalism, Ethnomusicology, and the Emerging South Asian Diaspora: An Exploration of Early-Twentieth-Century Musical Encounters in the United States.” Paper delivered at the 64th Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Indiana University (November 2019).

  • “Music of the World’s Peoples: Henry Cowell’s Innovative Curricula of the 1930s.” Paper delivered at the City University of New York’s Graduate Students in Music Conference (April 2019).

  • “Hindustani Music, the 1960s, and the American Imagination.” Paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Northern California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology, UC Davis (February 2018).

  • “Cultural Intersections through Raga: North Indian Classical Music and Academic Community Building.” Paper delivered at the Center for South Asian Studies 34th Annual Symposium, University of Hawaii, Manoa (April 2017).

Teaching Experience

Onondaga Community College, Adjunct Professor of Music

  • Music of the African Diaspora (Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025)

  • Western Music History I (Fall 2024)

  • Western Music History II (Spring 2025)

  • Music Appreciation I (Spring 2024)

  • Aural Skills I (Fall 2024)

  • Aural Skills II (Spring 2024, Spring 2025)

University of California, Santa Cruz, Graduate Teaching Fellow

  • Music of India (Spring 2020, Summer 2023)

  • The 1970s: A Decade in Rock (Winter 2021, Summer 2021)

  • U.S. Popular Music (Summer 2020)

  • Preparatory Musicianship (Summer 2018) 

Grants, Fellowships, & Awards

  • Community College Internationalization Fellowship, Cornell University, Einaudi Center (2024-2025)

  • Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Arts Division, UC Santa Cruz (2022-2023)

  • Fulbright-Nehru Research Grant (Entered grant status Feb. 2022)

  • Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer Language Fellowship (FLAS), UW-Madison (Summer 2020)

  • New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship (2019)

  • UC Santa Cruz Outstanding TA Award, Graduate Division, UC Santa Cruz (2017)

  • FLAS, UC Berkeley Institute for South Asian Studies (2016/2017)

  • Regent’s Fellowship, Graduate Division, UC Santa Cruz (2015)

  • Brander Wyatt Morrison Prize for outstanding undergraduate contributions to the McIntire Department of Music, University of Virginia (2010)

Graduate Teaching Assistantships and Guest Lectures at UCSC

  • Ensembles and Studio Courses:

    • Beginning/Intermediate West Javanese Gamelan (Winter/Spring 2023)

    • Beginning Balinese Gamelan (Winter/Spring 2018)

    • North Indian Rhythm and Drumming (Fall 2018/Winter 2019)

    • Intro to Indian Dance (Musical Accompanist, Fall 2016-Spring 2020)

    • University Orchestra (Winter 2019/Spring 2021)

    • Wind Ensemble (Spring/Fall 2018)

  • Lecture Courses:

    • Music of India (Spring 2016/Spring 2019/Fall 2020)

    • U.S. Popular Music (Fall 2017)

    • Music of the Beatles (Winter 2018)

    • Music of the Grateful Dead (Fall 2021)

    • Preparatory Musicianship (Winter/Spring 2017)

    • History of Western Art Music (Fall 2016)

  • Guest Lectures

    • “Rhythm Devils: Drumming of the Grateful Dead,” Music of the Grateful Dead (Fall 2021)

    • “The Rise of the Gramophone and Early Hindi Cinema,” Music of India (Fall 2020)

    • “Thumri, Ghazal, and Courtesan Culture in North India,” Indian Dance (Spring 2020)

    • “Introduction to Hindustani Rhythm and Drumming,” Indian Dance (Fall 2018)

    • “The Great Sitar Explosion: Ravi Shankar, George Harrison, and the Beatles,” Music of the Beatles (Winter 2018)

    • “Indian Music in the United States: 1950s-Present,” for History of Western Art Music, (November 2017)

Language Skills and Professional Development

Hindi-Urdu: high-intermediate proficiency

  • Intermediate Urdu, South Asian Summer Language Institute (SASLI), UW-Madison (Summer 2020)

  • Intermediate Hindi, American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), Jaipur, Rajasthan (Summer 2017)

Graduate Student Leadership Certificate Program

  • UC Santa Cruz, Graduate Division (Winter 2018)

Selected Performances and Creative Projects

  • UC Santa Cruz Gamelan Ensembles (Fall 2015-Spring 2023)

    • Member of Sundanese and Balinese performance ensembles

    • Tabla soloist, Tablalan, comp. Ed Garcia (2017-2018)

  • Pakhawaj solo and kathak dance accompaniment (with Alexandra Berger, kathak dancer),

    United States-India Educational Foundation, New Delhi (October 2022)

  • Tabla accompaniment for Afghan music recital and lecture-demonstration (Dr. Michael P. Lindsey),

    DePauw University/Indiana University, SEM Annual Meeting (November 2019)

  • Member of The Lightbulb Ensemble (Fall 2016-Spring 2019)

    • Premiered Hamsa, comp. Brian Baumbusch, Performing Indonesia Festival,

      Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (November 2016)

    • Performed with the Jack Quartet at REDCAT, Los Angeles (January 2017)

    • Premiered The Pressure (comp. Brian Baumbusch), Other Minds Festival 24,

      Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, (June 2019)