Dissertations
This page includes a reference list for thesis and dissertations on Indigenous music and related research. Primarily, this list focuses on ethnomusicological research, however, research from other fields with considerable attention to music may be included on suggestion.
The list is organized by large geographic orientations (e.g., North America, Pacific/Oceania, Asia, global, etc.) and then listed alphabetically by author and date of completion. To add a reference, please contact the webmaster. Include all relevant information including author, date, title, and institution. If the publication is available in open access, please include a webpage. |
North America |
Aplin, Thomas Christopher. 2010. “Fort Sill Apache Cosmopolitans: Southwestern Music, Experience, and Identity in the Southern Plains.” PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles.
Avery, Dawn. 2014. “Native Classical: Musical Modernities, Indigenous Research Methodologies, and a Kanienkeha (Mohawk) Concept of Non:wa (Now).” PhD diss. University of Maryland, College Park. Browner, Tara. 1995. “Transposing Cultures: The Appropriation of Native North American Musics, 1890–1990.” PhD diss. University of Michigan. Cunningham, James. 1998. “Slahal: More Than a Game With a Song.” PhD diss. University of Washington. Diamond, Beverley. 1979. “Music of the Netsilik Eskimo: A Study of Stability and Change.” PhD diss. University of Toronto. Frisbie, Charlotte J. 1970. “The Navajo House Blessing Ceremonial: A Study of Cultural Change.” PhD diss. The University of New Mexico. Haefer, J. Richard. 1981. “Musical Thought in Papago Culture.” PhD diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hamill, Chad. 2008. “Songs from Spirit: Power and Prayer in the Columbia Plateau.” PhD diss. University of Colorado at Boulder. Harrison, Klisala. 2000. “Victoria’s First Peoples Festival: Embodying Kwakwaka’wakw History in Presentations of Music and Dance in Public Spaces.” MA thesis. York University. Heth, Charlotte. 1975. “Stomp Dance Music of the Oklahoma Cherokee: A Study of Contemporary Practice with Special Reference to the Illinois District Council Ground.” PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles. Hoefnagels, Anna. 2001. “Powwows in Southwestern Ontario: Relationships, Influences and Musical Style.” PhD diss. York University. Jacobsen, Kristina. 2012. “Navajo Voices: Country Music and the Politics of Language and Belonging.” PhD diss. Duke University. Koons, Ryan. 2016. "Dancing Breath: Ceremonial Performance Practice, Environment, and Personhood in a Creek Community." PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles. Levine, Victoria Lindsay. 1990. “Choctaw Indian Musical Cultures in the Twentieth Century.” PhD diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Marshall, Kimberly Jenkins. 2011. "Performing Conversion Among the Diné Oodlání (Navajo Believers)." PhD diss. Indiana University. Minks, Amanda. 2006. "Interculturality in Play and Performance: Miskitu Children's Expressive Practices on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua." PhD diss. Columbia University. Perea, Jessica Bissett. 2011. “The Politics of Inuit Musical Modernities in Alaska.” PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles. Perea, John-Carlos. 2009. “Witchi Tai To: An Historical Acoustemology.” PhD diss. University of California, Berkeley. Przybylski, Liz. 2015. “Urban Indigeneity and Hip Hop Practice in Contemporary North America.” PhD diss. Northwestern University. Quick, Sarah. 2009. “Performing Heritage: Metis Music, Dance, and Identity in a Multicultural State.” PhD diss. Indiana University. Samuels, David. 1998. “A Sense of the Past: Music, Place, and History on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.” PhD diss. The University of Texas at Austin. Scales, Christopher. 1996. “First Nations Popular Music in Canada: Identity, Politics and Musical Meaning.” MA thesis. University of British Columbia. Scales, Christopher. 2004. “Powwow Music and the Aboriginal Recording Industry on the Northern Plains: Media, Technology, and Native American Music in the Late Twentieth Century.” PhD diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sercombe, Laurel. 2001. “And Then It Rained: Power and Song in Western Washington Coast Salish Myth Narratives.” PhD diss. University of Washington. Snyder, Sara. 2016. "Poetics, Performance, and Translation in Eastern Cherokee Language Revitalization." PhD diss. Columbia University. Taffe Reed, Susan. 2011. “From Big House to Longhouse: Continuity and Change of the Delaware Skin Dance.” PhD diss. Cornell University. Vosen, Elyse Carter. 2001. “Seventh-fire Children: Gender, Embodiment, and Musical Performances of Decolonization by Anishinaabe Youth.” PhD diss. University of Pennsylvania. Wapp, Ed. 1984. “The Sioux Courting Flute: Its Tradition, Construction, and Music.” MA thesis. University of Washington. Warden, Nolan. 2015. “Wixárika Music, Huichol Music: The Construction and Commodification of an Indigenous Identity." PhD diss. University of California, Los Angeles. |
South America |
Sagar, Rohan. 2012. “Ethnic Conversations in Sonic Spaces: Newer Perspectives in Music Education for Guyana’s Schools.” MA thesis. Future Generations Graduate School, West Virginia.
Turino, Thomas. 1987. “Power Relations, Identity and Musical Choice: Music in a Peruvian Altiplano Village and Among its Migrants in the Metropolis.” PhD diss. The University of Texas at Austin. Wissler, Holly. 2009. “From Grief and Joy We Sing: Social and Cosmic Regenerative Processes in the Songs of Q’eros, Peru.” PhD diss. The Florida State University. |
Pacific/Oceania
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Anderson, Harold. 2008. "A Confluence of Streams: Music and Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand." PhD diss. University of Maryland, College Park.
Diettrich, Brian. 2009. “Transforming Colonial Encounters: Performing Arts and Cultural Heritage in Chuuk, Micronesia.” PhD diss. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Donaghy, Joseph Keola. 2003. “Na Limeni a John Kameaaloha Almeida: He Kalailaina ‘ohalikelike Me Ke Kalele Ma Luna O Ka ‘Oko‘a O Ka Puana Kama‘ilio a Me Ka Puana Himeni.” MA thesis. University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Donaghy, Joseph Keola. 2011. “The Language Is the Music: Perceptions of Authority and Authenticity in Hawaiian Language Composition and Vocal Performance.” PhD diss. University of Otago. Kaeppler, Adrienne. 1967. “The Structure of Tongan Dance.” PhD diss. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Kurokawa, Yoko. 2004. “Yearning for Distant Music: Consumption of Hawaiian Music and Dance in Japan.” PhD diss. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Moulin, Jane Freeman. 1991. “He ko‘ina: Music, Dance and Poetry in the Marquesas Islands.” PhD diss. University of California, Santa Barbara. Pang, Chadwick Sean. 2008. “Virtuosic Ukulele: Re/Creating.” MA thesis. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Salā, Aaron. 2011. “Claiming the Colonial and Domestication the Foreign: A Native Hawaiian Aesthetic for the Piano in Hula Ku‘i Music. MA thesis. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Skillman, Teri L. 2012. “The Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, Hawai‘i: Sovereign Spaces Reclaimed and Created Through Hula Competition, 1963–2010. PhD diss. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Skillman, Amy Ku‘uleialoha. 1982. “The Hula Ku‘i: A Tradition in Hawaiian Music and Dance.” MA thesis. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Skillman, Amy Ku‘uleialoha. 1991. “Himene Tahiti: Ethnoscientific and Ethnohistorical Perspectives on Choral Singing and Protestant Hymnody in the Society Islands, French Polynesia.” PhD diss. Harvard University. Sweetman, Lauren E. 2017. "Ngā waiata o Tāne Whakapiripiri (The Music of Tāne Whakapiripiri): Cultural Expressions, Transformation, and Healing in a Māori Forensic Psychiatric Unit." PhD diss. New York University. |
Asia |
Babiracki, Carol. 1991. “Musical and Cultural Interaction in Tribal India: The Karam Repertory of the Mundas of Chotanagpur.” PhD diss. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Fairfield, Benjamin. 2012. “Merry Christmas Huay Nam Khao. Domesticating Foreign Christmas Music in Sgaw Karen Village in Northern Thailand.” MA thesis, University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa. Hunter, Justin R. 2015. “Vitalizing Traditions: Ainu Music and Dance and the Discourse of Indigeneity. PhD dissertation, University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa. Kuan, Yuan-Yu. 2012. “Hybridity, Indigeneity, and Gendering: Chang Hui-Mei, Popular Music, and Taiwanese Identity.” MA thesis, University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa. Uyeda, Kumiko. 2015. “The Journey of the Tonkori: A Multicultural Transmission.” PhD diss. University of California, Santa Cruz. |
Africa/Europe |
Moore, Rebekah Elizabeth. 2004. “Rewriting the Soundscape: Towards a New Understanding of Sami Popular Music and Identity in the New Millennium.” MA thesis. University of Maryland, College Park.
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Global Studies |