Peter McMurray, Director of Studies Music, funded by The Friends of Aliki Vatikioti for Music & The Arts.
Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University (2015-2018); Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT (2014-15); PhD in Ethnomusicology, Harvard University (2014), with secondary field in Critical Media Practice; MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) in Music Composition, Brandeis University (2008); BA in Classics/Slavic Literature, Harvard University (2005).
I supervise across the music curriculum, especially for musicology courses related to non-western music, popular music, jazz and contemporary art music.
Queens' is a welcoming, open community, and that extends to our approach to music. We are interested in students who are curious and passionate about music, whether your background is in European classical music, jazz, or reciting the Qur'an, or related expressive forms like dance. We especially encourage first-generation university applicants (that is, you will be the first person in your family to attend university).
My main research interest is in questions of Islam and sound, especially in contemporary Turkey and its diaspora (Berlin, London). I'm also very interested in sound and media studies, including the history of audio recording (especially analog tape), the voice/orality, music videos, intersections of technologies and bodies (including questions of race, gender, and sexuality). In my work, I draw on both ethnographic writing and also non-fiction audiovisual production (i.e., documentary filmmaking and audio composition).
I teach across all years in the Faculty of Music, including Music in Contemporary Societies (IA), Introduction to Ethnomusicology and Introduction to Popular Music (IB), and Decolonizing the Ear (II).
Lecturer in Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music. Awarded The Pilkington Prize for excellence in teaching by the University of Cambridge in 2022.
- Official Fellow
- Director of Studies, funded by The Friends of Aliki Vatikioti for Music & The Arts