Anaar Desai-Stephens (Ph.D., Ethnomusicology '17), has recently accepted the position of Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music, beginning in the 2018–19 academic year. This position was previously held by Ellen Koskoff, former president of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Anaar has been serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Eastman while the university was conducting a national search.
Anaar's dissertation, “Singing through the Screen: Indian Idol and the Politics of Aspiration in Post-liberalization India,” examined how discourses and practices of aspirational self-transformation are circulated, consumed, and materialized through sites of popular music practice.
