Anaar Desai-Stephens, Assistant Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology), joins the Graduate Center from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester where she was an assistant professor of ethnomusicology while holding affiliations with the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies and the Visual and Cultural Studies programs. Her work focuses on popular music, media economies, and subjectivity in South Asia, and has been supported by sources including the American Musicological Society’s Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship and the American Association for University Women’s Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship. She is currently completing her first monograph, Voicing Aspiration: Bollywood Songs and the Dreamwork of Contemporary India, which explores the role of popular music as a medium for aspirational self-making in neoliberalizing India. Trained as a violinist, singer, and mover, she continues to be an active performer across a range of styles.

Why did you choose to come to the CUNY Graduate Center?

Desai-Stephens: I was excited by my conversations with the graduate students, who are so thoughtful, pursuing fascinating research, and who bring such a rich array of life experiences to their graduate studies. In addition, I’ve long been aware of CUNY’s established and respected Ethnomusicology program, housed in vital proximity to other cutting-edge programs in the humanities and social sciences. The opportunity to collaborate and learn from and with my brilliant colleagues both in and beyond the Music program is one that I am eagerly anticipating.

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming year?

Desai-Stephens: I’m looking forward to getting to know students and faculty better and to exploring some of the Graduate Center’s interdisciplinary centers. I hope to offer a class on music, gender, and sexuality in the spring. And, I’ll admit, I’m pretty excited to move into my office with a view of the Empire State Building!

Welcome to the Graduate Center, Professor Desai-Stephens!

See link below for Graduate Center’s official news announcement:

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/news/announcing-four-new-faculty-members

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