Fellows 2010–2011

Born in Dijon (France), Franck Bernède is both a world class cellist and an ethnomusicologist. In addition to an active career as a performer, Prof. Bernède is specialized in the field of music and religions of Himalayan regions. His special research focus for over twenty-five years has been the Bardic traditions of the central Himalayas (West-Nepal and Uttaranchal-India) as well as in Katmandu Valley, particularly music and dances of the Newar, the indigenous population of Nepal. His Yale project is entitled Nāsadya: The Himalayan God of Music and Dance.

Ruth Davis will draw together the threads of three current and recent research projects focusing on sacred musical traditions of the Mediterranean. Entitled Music at the Mediterranean Crossroads of the Abrahamic Faiths, each component will explore, in different ways and in varying combinations, musical encounters among and between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities. The project will examine the specific ways in which music, with its innate capacity to convey multiple associations and meanings, not only defines but equally bridges, transforms, and ultimately transcends cultural divisions between sacred and secular spheres and between different religious, ethnic and linguistic groups. Prof. Davis is University Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Cambridge Fellow, and Director of Studies in Music, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Lauren F. Winner is Assistant Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Duke University Divinity School, where she earned her M.Div. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University with her dissertation on “Material Culture and Household Religious Practice in Colonial Virginia.” The author of many scholarly books and articles, herenormously popular Girl Meets God: on the Path to a Spiritual Life won the2002 Logos Booksellers’ Association award for Best Book in Christianity and Culture, and hasbeen issued in paperback. At Yale she will work on her new book Living Liturgy: Americans’ Experience of Liturgical Culture, 1750-2000,investigating both people’s devotional experiences of liturgy, and the ways in which liturgy has been repurposed for politics, protest, humor, marketing, and play.