Martin Jean has announced the appointment of Bo kyung Blenda Im (M.A.R. religion and music ’12) as lecturer in ethnomusicology in the ISM and YDS for spring 2020.
During this semester, Blenda will teach two courses related to sacred musics of the world and be involved in the ISM colloquium, ISM Fellows program, and our shared community life.
Blenda recently completed her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she wrote a dissertation entitled Transpacific Modernity and the Challenge of Belonging: Negotiating Race, Music, and Faith in Seoul. By considering the transnational circulation of black gospel and contemporary worship music across the Pacific Basin, this work offers insights into the inextricabe links between Christian modernity, racial formation, and musical proactic in Korean and Korean diasporans’ articulations of selfhood and community.
Of course, Blenda is no stranger to this community having received the Master of Arts in Religion (Religion and Music) in 2012. Her undergraduate degree is from UCLA, with a double major in music history and communications.