Rocca Dissertation Research Fellowship

Receiving the Rocca Dissertation Fellowship for the 2023-2024 academic year provided significant support for the research and writing of my dissertation, currently titled “Negotiating Contemporary China-Kenya Relations through Sonic Infrastructures and Musical Imaginaries.” Based on fieldwork research in Nairobi, Kenya, my project explores how China and Kenya’s engagements are performed, developed, and imagined through sonic infrastructures that actively
produce, leverage, and circulate music between the two countries. Challenging simplistic “monster or messiah” narratives often used to...