About
I study the cultural politics of audiovisual media, with a focus on the intersections of nationalism, ethnicity, and gender/sexuality in music for cinema.
I have conducted research in Russia, the US, and Morocco. Much of my research, teaching and public speaking centers on the themes of Soviet and Russian film music, indigeneity and power, transnationalism and sound, and the intersectionality of gender, race, and nationalism in screen media.
Currently, I am completing a trilogy of books on Shostakovich's film music and how he navigated the Soviet film industry as Russia's first film composer. The first of these was The Early Film Music of Dmitry Shostakovich, which examines his film music from 1928 to 1936. The second, titled Dmitry Shostakovich and Music for Stalinist Cinema (1936 to 1953) will be released in early 2025, also with Oxford University Press. The third book, currently titled Dmitry Shostakovich and Music for Thaw Cinema, is underway. I began drafting it when I resided as a Fellow at the National Humanities Center in 2023-2024.
There are also several other projects underway. I recently began research at the Library of Congress for my next monograph, Sounding Red: Musical Imaginings of Russia in US Cinema. I am also working on two edited volumes on global film music, and superheroism and sound in Marvel/DC films.
I am Professor of Musicology and Ethnomusicology, and cross-appointed in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.