Affiliated Faculty

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="55:3-55:742;2111-2850">Inderjit N. Kaur is Chair of Musicology and Associate Professor of Music in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan. She is an ethnomusicologist and Sikh Studies scholar who specializes in South Asian musical cultures with a focus on Sikh musical worship, and the analytical lenses of phenomenology, and sound, sensory, and affect studies. In addition to her PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Berkeley, Kaur also holds a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Berkeley, and taught economics for several years before switching her career to music. She has received extensive training in vocal khyāl (North Indian classical music), and Bharat Nātyam (South Indian classical dance).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="57:3-57:786;2855-3638">Kaur's work is motivated by an urge to illuminate native epistemologies and forge decolonized research, pedagogy, and institutional development. Her research pursues ever-deeper understandings of musically engendered experience and meaning making, and the relationship between embodied aesthetics and ethics. An important aspect of her research methodology is its grounding in sensory ethnography. She has worked for two decades with Sikhs from diverse backgrounds and from around the globe, in India and the diaspora. Equally significant is the fact that she builds on her lifetime of participation in Sikh musical worship, including many years as an amateur singer of Sikh sabad kīrtan (sung scriptural verse), and her native understanding of and deep engagement with sacred texts.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="59:3-59:975;3643-4615">Kaur has made several critical interventions in the study of Sikh musical culture, on: the meaning of the term ghar (literally, house) in the musical designations of the Sikh primary scripture (2008); the circulation of the modern term gurmat sangīt amongst scholars, musicians, and congregations, in "Sikh Shabad Kīrtan and Gurmat Sangīt: What's in the Name?" (<strong><em>Journal of Punjab Studies</em></strong>, 2011); authenticity debates about the musical styles of Sikh sabad kīrtan among various stakeholders (2016); the ethical significance of the term anhad (literally, boundless) in Sikh scriptural verses, in "Theorizing the (Un)Sounded in Sikhī: Anhad, Sabad, and Kīrtan" (<strong><em>Religions</em></strong>, 2021), which draws on scriptural close reading, ethnography, and the analytic of transduction to argue that the aim of Sikh sounding practice is an embodied ethical attunement; and the meaning of the term ras (literally, juice) in Sikh scriptural verses and its relevance in musical worship (2022).</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="61:3-61:1043;4620-5660">Kaur's essays appear in journals such as the <strong><em>Yearbook for Traditional Music</em></strong>, <strong><em>MusiCultures</em></strong>, <strong><em>Religions</em></strong>, and <strong><em>Civilisations</em></strong>, and edited volumes such as the <strong><em>Oxford Handbook of the Phenomenology of Music Cultures</em></strong>, <strong><em>Music and Dance as Everyday South Asia</em></strong> (Oxford University Press), and <strong><em>Sounding the Indian Ocean</em></strong> (University of California Press). Her monograph, <strong><em>Sensational Rhythms of the Ineffable: Ethical Affects in Sabad Kīrtan</em></strong> (Oxford University Press), uncovers the intersensorial processes of musical worship and their effectiveness in the affective transmission of Sikh philosophy and ethics. Bringing close readings of Sikh sacred texts together with analyses of the diverse musical styles of sabad kīrtan, it draws out a Sikh theory of lived rhythm from within the sacred songs themselves. Her further research examines the role of sacred song in Sikh religious transnationalism, and musical worship as a wellspring of wellness, the latter based on community-engaged research with Sikh communities in southeastern Michigan.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="63:3-63:352;5665-6014">Kaur's teaching includes undergraduate courses on North Indian classical music, and Bollywood song, and graduate seminars on understanding musical cultures through the lenses of phenomenology, and affect, sensory, and sound studies. She welcomes students in all areas of South Asian expressive culture as well as in analytical areas of her research.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="65:3-65:403;6019-6419">Kaur is co-editor of the open-access journal <strong><em>Music and Politics</em></strong> (Michigan Publishing). She serves on the Council of the Society for Ethnomusicology, and previously served as Co-chair of its South Asia Performing Arts Section and President of its Northern California Chapter. As a public-facing scholar she has given numerous public talks, and has curated and adjudicated Sikh sabad kīrtan programs.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal" data-sourcepos="67:3-67:200;6424-6621">Between music and economics, Kaur has taught previously at the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Santa Cruz; Santa Clara University, and the University of San Francisco.</p>

South Asian musical cultures, with a focus on Sikh musical worship and Sikh sabad kīrtan. The analytical lenses of phenomenology and of sound, sensory, and affect studies, including listening and the senses. Sensory ethnography as research method. The relationship between embodied aesthetics and ethics, and musically engendered experience and meaning making. Sikh philosophy and ethics, approached through the scriptural terms ghar, gurmat sangīt, anhad, and ras. Religious transnationalism and social justice. Illuminating native epistemologies and forging decolonized research, pedagogy, and institutional development.