Invited Lectures and Media Appearances
“Instrument of the State,” Writers & Readers Symposium, St. Francisville, Louisiana, 2025.
“Instrument of the State: A Century of Music in Louisiana’s Angola Prison (Jazz Edition),” World Music Center Distinguished Scholar Series, University of California, Los Angeles, 2025.
“Instrument of the State: A Century of Music in Louisiana’s Angola Prison,” Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, April 17, 2024.
“Music During Incarceration,” Sound Health Network, 2022.
“Follow Me Down: A Postscript,” West Baton Rouge Museum, Port Allen, Louisiana, 2021.
“Music and Prisons, Part 2,” Cadence Podcast, 2021.
“Neon Moss,” Dolly Parton’s America, WNYC Studios, 2019.
“Prison Music: Reconsidering Music at Louisiana State Penitentiary, 1964–1976,” Smithsonian Folkways, 2019.
“College Students Join Inmates To Study Music Behind Bars,” Here and Now, WBUR, radio broadcast, September 3, 2018.
“Singing Through the Jail Phone: Inmates and Undergrads Learn About Music Behind Bars,” Arts & Culture feature, WAMU, radio broadcast, August 6, 2018.
“Filmmaking as Expressive Understanding of Music Making,” Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 2018.
“Finding Cinematic Understandings of Music in American Music Documentaries,” University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 2017.
“Midnight Special, Shine a Light on Me: Prison Music from Angola, Louisiana & Beyond,” American Routes, PRX radio broadcast, 2017.
“Musical Vestiges of Prison Reform at Louisiana State Penitentiary,” University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, 2017.
“The Nation Strikes Back / Striking Back at the Nation,” Interrogating the Nation: Repositioning U.S. Music in the 21st Century, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2017.
“MP3 Players in Federal Prisons,” Soundcheck, WNYC, New York, radio broadcast, 2012.
“My Friends All Say I’m Acting Strange: Musical Transcendence, Manipulation and Abandonment at Angola Prison, Louisiana,” Jairazbhoy Colloquium Series, University of California, Los Angeles, 2010.
“The Tradition of Looking Beyond Tradition,” Teaching Our World Through Music, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California, 2009.
“Musical Influence in the American South,” Teaching Our World Through Music, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California, 2009.
“Bringing Arabic Music to America,” Marketplace, American Public Media, radio broadcast, Los Angeles, California, 2008.
“Ethnomusicological Perspectives on Prison Music,” Bass Clef Method Association, Los Angeles, California, 2007.
“Heavy Metal in Egypt,” University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 2006.
“Lomax the Songhunter,” Torrance Public Library in association with POV, Torrance, California, 2006.
“Music in Prison,” University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 2006.
“Introduction to North Indian Tabla,” Claremont Folk Music Center, Claremont, California, 2002.
“Traditionalism and Fusion in World Music,” panel moderator, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, 2000.
“Theme and Variation: Anatomy of a Kaida Composition,” Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 2000.
“Time in Music,” Eight Forty-Eight, WBEZ, Chicago, Illinois, radio broadcast, 1999.
Conference Papers
“Ethnomusicology as Artistic Practice,” keynote lecture, New Perspectives in Audiovisual Ethnomusicology: Between Archives and New Technologies, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy, 2026.
“The City as Sound: Experimental Techniques in the Contemporary City Symphony,” keynote lecture, International Council for Traditional Music and Dance Study Group for Audiovisual Ethnomusicology, Shanghai, China, 2025.
“Locked In: Identifying the Value of Prison Music Scholarship,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2022.
“The Past and Future of Musical Labor,” Music Ecosystem Forum, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2022.
“Why Call It Ciné-Ethnomusicology? Film Studies Approaches to Ethnomusicological Films,” Film as Ethnography, Activism, and Public Work in Ethnomusicology, pre-conference symposium, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Bloomington, 2019.
“Carceral Acoustemologies: Investigating Music and Sound in the DC Jail,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Bloomington, 2019.
“Carceral Acoustemologies: Investigating Music and Sound in the DC Jail,” Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Violence, Therapy, Athens, Greece, 2019.
“Expressive Understandings and National Constraints: U.S. Music Documentary Film in Socio-Economic Context,” International Council for Traditional Music Study Group for Audiovisual Ethnomusicology, Lisbon, Portugal, 2018.
“Keeping a Scholar at the Table: Researching Prison Music in Louisiana, Washington DC, and Norway,” Music in Prisons: What Can Ethnomusicologists Do? panel, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Denver, 2017.
“Disciplining Jazz: The History of Contemporary Jazz and the Legacy of Traditional Blues at Louisiana State Penitentiary,” International Council for Traditional Music World Conference, Limerick, Ireland, 2017.
“Playing the Changes: New Penology and Angola’s Jazz Scene in the 1950s,” Angola Bound Revisited Symposium, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana, 2016.
“Angola Bound: Rethinking Prison Music as Neoliberal Labor,” Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2016.
“Watching to Listen: Music, Sound, and the Image in Early Music Documentary,” Auditory Knowledge in the Arts, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 2015.
“The Fortunes of Failure: Neoliberal Transformations of Musical Labor at Angola Prison,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, 2014.
“Don’t Tell Me How to Listen: The Music of North American Observational Cinema,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, 2013.
“The Global Sound of Social Change: Music, Empowerment and Community Building,” Future of Music Summit, Washington, DC, 2013.
“Art and Advocacy,” panel presentation, Future of Music Summit, Washington, DC, 2013.
“Politics and Privacy of Talent: Music at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, 2012.
“Sounds from Inside: Inmate Histories of Music at Louisiana State Penitentiary, 1964–present,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music, U.S. Branch Annual Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2011.
“Blood in My Eyes: The Inspiring Principles of Musicians at Louisiana’s Hunt Prison,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, 2010.
“Making Quality Videos with Inexpensive Equipment,” workshop, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, 2010.
“I Am Not a Number: Musical Responses to Custodial Techniques at Angola Prison, Louisiana,” Society for American Music Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 2010.
“Little Boy Blue: Formal Analysis as a Means for Critical Self-Reflection, A Case Study,” Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, 2010.
“Ethnomusicological Vérité: Filming Musicians in Louisiana and California State Prisons,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Middletown, Connecticut, 2008.
“Musical Investigations of Carceral Aporia: Testimony of the Musicians of Two California State Prisons,” American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, 2008.
“Until Our Ears All Bleed: Poetics of the Grotesque in International Extreme Metal,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, 2007.
“Fade to Black: The Catalysis of Politics and Aesthetics in Egyptian Heavy Metal,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music Annual Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, 2007.
“Fade to Black: The Catalysis of Politics and Aesthetics in Egyptian Heavy Metal,” International Association for the Study of Popular Music, U.S. Branch Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 2007.
“Fade to Black: The Catalysis of Politics and Aesthetics in Egyptian Heavy Metal,” Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California Chapter Annual Meeting, Riverside, California, 2007.
“Prometheus Sings: Mythology, Metaphor, and Meaning in Prison Music,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2006.
“Prometheus Sings: Mythology, Metaphor, and Meaning in Prison Music,” Society for Ethnomusicology Southern California Chapter Annual Meeting, San Diego, California, 2006.
“Lost Impressions: A Recovery of Early Orientalist Music Literature,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005.
“Myths, Metaphors, and Existential Crises: A Scholarly Redefinition of American Prison Music,” American Folklore Society Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005.
“Shakedown: Redefining Music in American Prisons,” International Council for Traditional Music World Conference, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 2005.
“The Hyper-Sama`i: Use of Multimedia Technology for Transcription and Analysis,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Tucson, Arizona, 2004.