Overview
Anaar Desai-Stephens is a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Cornell University. Her research focuses on the intersection between music, media, and subjectivity in contemporary India with an emphasis on reality music television shows. She is currently writing her dissertation, based on sixteen months of fieldwork in Mumbai, with the support of the Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship from the American Musicological Society. Anaar is also an active musician, studying Hindustani vocal music and performing on violin with the Mumbai-based band Maati Baani and Cornell’s Palonegro ensemble.