#  Kay K. Shelemay 

G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music

Professor of African and African American Studies

 

 

 



   ![SHELEMAY](/sites/g/files/omnuum5006/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/2025-02/SHELEMAY.png?h=1d868c73&itok=Syo9EvQU) 

 



 

 email <shelemay@fas.harvard.edu> 

 



 

I am an ethnomusicologist with particularly strong interests in the theories and methods of musical ethnography. I have carried out research and writing in many locales at home and abroad, including in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian- American diaspora, with Syrian Jews in New York, Mexico City, and Jerusalem, and with a cross-section of musicians ranging from those in Accra, Ghana, to numerous American ethnic musical communities. A native Texan, I studied at the University of Michigan, and have taught at Columbia University, New York University, and Wesleyan University, before coming to Cambridge in 1992. At Harvard, I am a professor in the Music Department and in the Department of African and African American Studies, as well as actively carrying out research in the field of Jewish Studies. I greatly enjoy my on-going contact with both current and former students “from whom I have learned so much,” as I write in the dedication to my Soundscapes textbook.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Interests
    
     [African and African American Studies](/interests/african-and-african-american-studies) [Music](/interests/music)
- ## Role
    
     [Senior Common Room](/role/senior-common-room) [Faculty](/role/faculty)