Tamara Roberts

Assistant Professor, Performance Studies and Ethnomusicology

Research interests: popular music, political economy, critical theory, performance theory, intercultural performance, scenography, music and spirituality

Office location: 218 Morrison

Email: tr@berkeley.edu

Office hours: Tuesday 3-5:30pm, or by appointment

Personal statement

I am a scholar, teacher, and artist devoted to exploring the aesthetic, political, and spiritual potential of imaginative performance. My current research investigates the connection between sound and race, centering on forgotten interracial and intercultural histories of popular music in the U.S. My dissertation, "Musicking at the Crossroads of Diaspora: Afro Asian Musical Politics," considers the relationships between black/Asian musical collaboration, interracial politics in the U.S., and the international Third World movement.

Other research interests include musical representations of whiteness, the racial politics of the 1950/60s U.S. folk revival, the gendering of the voice, the politics of Buddhist chant and meditation, and intercultural percussion communities. In all, my work engages how music is used to construct individual and communal identities, while at the same time holding the potential to render our lives more complexly than static labels of race, gender, and sexuality.

I also work as a composer, sound designer, DJ, and performer in music, theater, dance, and film.

Compositions/Performances/Publications

Books

Yellow Power, Yellow Soul: The Revolutionary Music, Artistry, and Political Struggles of Fred Ho. Co-edited with Roger Buckley. Book manuscript in progress.

A New Mexican Cancionero: Songs from the Ruben Cobos Collection of Folklore. Co-edited with Victoria Lindsay Levine. Book manuscript in progress.

Book chapters

“Silk Road Blues: Black Music, Asian Music, and the Cultural Economy of Chicago.” Diasporic Counterpoints. Eds. Darlene Clark Hine and Ji-Yeon Yuh, forthcoming.

“Voicing Masculinity.” Blacktino Queer Performance: An Anthology. Eds. E. Patrick Johnson and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera. University of Michigan Press, forthcoming.

“The Elusive Truth: Intercultural Music Exchange in ‘Addictive.’” Interculturalism: Exploring Critical Issues. Eds. Dianne Powell and Fiona Sze. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2004, pg. 83-86.

I have given presentations and guest lectures at conferences/institutions including: Society for Ethnomusicology, Performance Studies International, American Studies Association, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Society for American Music, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, DePaul University, Northpark Universty, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

I have composed original music or designed sound for companies including: Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Next Theatre Company, About Face Theatre, Teatro Luna, American Theater Company, Northwestern University Theatre and Interpretation Center, Steep Theatre Company, TimeLine Theatre, Strawdog Theatre Company, LaMicro Theater, Serendipity Theatre Collective 2nd Story, Chicago Dramatists, and the Chicago Kings.

Education

B.A. (Music and Drama), Colorado College, 2000
M.A. (Performance Studies), Northwestern University, 2003
Ph.D. (Performance Studies), Northwestern University, 2009