Payam Yousefi (PhD Harvard, 2023) is an assistant professor of ethnomusicology at the University of Florida specializing in the intersections of music and politics in the Middle East and the US. His book project titled, Subversive Sounds: Music and Authoritarian Theocracy in Modern Iran tells multiple stories of how Iranian musicians’ have transcended authoritarian controls over the past 19 years. Presenting case studies in four genres—traditional, classical, sacred, and popular—the book argues for music’s efficacy as a tool to inscribe material changes in authoritarian political contexts where explicit protest is violently suppressed. Importantly, Yousefi explores how musicians’ ethically framed practices, not only mediate social movements, but also imagine and enact new socio-political futures.
His past research on the musical resistance among Female vocalists in Iran was awarded both the “Charles Seeger Prize (2019)” and the “James T. Koetting Prize (2018)” by the Society for Ethnomusicology. In 2023 he was awarded SEM’s “Religion, Music, and Sound Section Paper Prize” for his research on Anti-Theocracy Protests in Iranian Shi’ite Chanting Rituals.
Most recently, his solo album for the kamāncheh, Songs of Hope (2025) was released showcasing his improvisatory and compositional prowess in the Persian dastgāh tradition. His forthcoming scholarship includes a chapter in Iran Amplified: One Hundred Years of Music and Society, ed. Siamdoust & Chehabi, where he considers the non-coercive power of Iranian women’s vocal performances in online and offline counter-publics—arguing that women’s subversive musical performances play on “social poetics” to engender contrasting notions of respectability, in effect limiting the power of authorities to enforce restrictions.
At the University of Florida Yousefi is also affiliate faculty in the Center for Global Islamic Studies and the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship. In addition to this he founded and directs the UF’s Persian Music Ensemble.