Major Research Projects

East by Far East: Music and Migration Colonial Manchuria

Monograph in Progress

My monograph in progress introduces a radical new understanding of cultural mobility and identity amidst violent political strife. The project challenges the hegemony of the nation state in the study of Manchurian culture by focusing on the forms of musical hybridity that developed out of mass migration and repeated colonial domination. Organized into successive periods of colonial rule, the monograph bridges the gaps between previously separated histories of Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Soviet cultural influence in the region. Chapters delve into the ways that music accompanied the movement of populations across the Manchurian border, including settlers, soldiers, refugees, and other displaced persons. Narrated from the First Sino-Japanese War to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the project drastically reshapes our understanding of cultural continuity and change during periods of intense social turmoil. The monograph will breathe new life into the study of diaspora, displacement, and our conception of the border as a defining feature of cultural belonging.

Sounding Russian Manchuria: Musical Circulation and Colonial Imagination, 1896-1938

Dissertation | University of California, Berkeley

Though the Russian Empire is often thought of as a distinctly European power, my dissertation emphasizes the lasting legacy of Russian colonization on the cultural landscape of Northeast Asia. The project critically examines how musical circulation helped shape the idea of Manchuria in the Russian colonial imaginary, attending to the diverse forms of intercultural exchange that emerged alongside geopolitical conflict in the region. Chapters investigate phonographic encounters that occurred during expeditions of the Sino-Russian borderlands, musical performances that accompanied armed conflict over the Chinese Eastern Railway, the role of the global recording industry in facilitating inter-diasporic and inter-ethnic connections, and the sociopolitical forces that shaped the aesthetics of musical performance during the Imperial Japanese occupation of Manchukuo. By reframing Manchuria as a nexus of intercultural innovation amidst intense social upheaval, my dissertation prompts a musical revision of prevailing theories of colonial subjectivity and cultural authenticity.

Publications and Work In Progress

Resonances of Railway Imperialism: Music and Conflict over the Chinese Eastern Railway

Article in Progress | To Be Submitted in May 2024

Soviet Jazz on American Vinyl: Consuming Diasporic Jazz at Home

Book Chapter in The Routledge Companion to Diasporic Jazz Studies, edited by Bruce Johnson, Adam Havas, and David Horn. Routledge Press. (Forthcoming)