Pedagogical Approach
My ideal classroom is a laboratory for creative exploration, where students develop and synthesize ideas through hands-on activities. I have led workshops where students learn to operate the playback of 78 rpm gramophone recordings and wax phonograph cylinders, write liner notes, design LP record jackets, and participate in a class-wide Wikipedia “edit-a-thon.” As the Norman Jacobson Teaching Fellow at the Townsend Center for the Humanities, I am currently developing a seminar called Global History of Sound Recording, in which students dive into the rapid spread of the phonograph and gramophone to the furthest corners of the world at the turn of the 20th century, and the diverse repertoires that were represented in the recording studio.
I have taught a wide variety of courses for majors and non-majors in historical musicology and ethnomusicology at the undergraduate level. My undergraduate writing seminar “Music and State Socialism” received the Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Course Development Grant at UC Berkeley. I was named Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor by the Department of Music at UC Berkeley in 2022. In the following year, I received the Teaching Effectiveness Award from the Graduate Student Instructor Teaching and Resource Center at UC Berkeley.
Record jacket designed by Casey Simpson for “Music and State Socialism.” Displayed here with permission.
A political cartoon parodying the classic logo of His Master’s Voice featuring the Russian Tsar. Excerpted from Talking Machine World, June 1906.
Sounds of Soviet Collapse
Approved for elective credit in the Dept. of Music and the Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures
In this seminar, students delve into the wild musical styles that accompanied the social upheaval of the final decade of Soviet rule and the radical aesthetic trends that developed following the collapse of the USSR. From free jazz festivals in Leningrad to the Singing Revolution in Tallinn, EDM raves in the desiccated Aral Sea to the viral songs of post-Soviet memes, students traverse a wide range of geographies and genres. Film labs introduce students to key works of late Soviet cinema such as The Needle (1988) and The Color of Pomegranates (1969 [released 1992]).
Music and State Socialism
Awarded the Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. Course Development Grant
This writing-intensive seminar examines the diverse musical practices that evolved alongside the rise and eventual decline of state socialism in Eastern Europe. Through weekly writing assignments and workshops, students develop a nuanced vocabulary to describe a wide range of musical styles and genres from socialist realist opera to Azerbaijani mugham jazz. Centered at the intersection of aesthetics and politics, students critically engage with theoretical debates through an immersive study of primary source materials in translation.
Music in American Cultures
Approved by the American Cultures Subcommittee at UC Berkeley
This survey course focuses on the diverse musical practices of people in the United States and the historical, economic, and cultural forces that shape them. Students examine how various racial and ethnic groups have used music to build communities, adopt identities, challenge stereotypes, and forge bonds across cultural boundaries. Through active listening assignments and creative projects, students build a toolkit for musical analysis that can be applied to a wide range of genres and styles.
Mentorship & Public Musicology
Remote Research Internship Program (Summer 2021)
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, I served as the primary supervisor summer internship program, which I organized in partnership with the Museum-Archive of Russian Culture in San Francisco (MRCSF). Two undergraduate students from Brown University (one music major and one slavic studies major) participated in the program, funded by Brown Connect Sprint Grant. As a born-digital program, the interns gained familiarity with several platforms used by cultural heritage institutions, including audio restoration using Adobe Audition and online content management with Omeka. At the end of the summer, the interns presented their own research projects based on the archival materials that they discovered.
Berkeley Connect (Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Summer 2024)
Students can often feel isolated in college, or show up without the meta-skills to thrive in a college classroom; this is especially true for first-generation, undocumented, low-income, transfer, and international students. As a mentor in the Berkeley Connect program, I have worked closely with a wide range of students to help them get the most out of their undergraduate education. During the program, I took my students on a field trip to the San Francisco Opera, where we watched the premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.
“An Overview of Recordings at the Museum of Russian Culture” Public Lecture in San Francisco, January 29, 2022.
“Musical Treasures of Manchuria’s Russian Gramophone Industry” Public Lecture in San Francisco, August 20, 2022.